Glomp!
by FishFlakes
Summary: A strange force is causing realms to collide... and anime characters suddenly start appearing in the real world! These charas are a dream come true for otakus, but not everyone wants them here... and some want to wipe them out completely!
1. The Characters Begin to Appear

_What any otaku would give for their favorite characters to be real... Actual beings that they can hug, kiss and glomp. But be careful what you wish for, because while you would surely be thrilled about such a reality, it would not be in everyone's favor. The characters themselves would be stripped from their lives in their own worlds just to join you, of course, but the torture goes beyond just fangirling. You see, odds are not everyone would want a bunch of random anime characters appearing in our world. In fact, I'm sure someone would want to get rid of them entirely. And if they can't send the characters back into their world, then the only way to get rid of them is... well, it's just a hypothetical anyway. Do you expect real anime characters to appear?_

_... Actually yes, as you may have guessed, that's what's going to happen. Characters from a variety of different animes will experience nothing but a bright purple flash in front of them before they see that they're no longer home where they belong, brought into a foreign world by some unknown force. As for what happens to the characters... well, that's for you to find out, isn't it?_

* * *

><p>"What... just happened?" A young boy asked no one in particular, looking around at the barren landscape in front of him. He was a character, presumably, who had merely been lying around with nothing to do until just a moment ago, when a bright flash lit up his bedroom, and when the light cleared, he found himself in this strange place. He ran a hand through his blonde hair, not quite sure what to make of the situation... it wasn't every day that he was suddenly teleported to another place like this, but at least he didn't panic. The character then glanced at the sunrise on the horizon, it was barely morning. <em>Let's see... maybe if I find someone, I can ask where I am... <em>he thought, still unsure.

Lucky for him, it didn't take long for him to spot a male figure in the distance, a bit oddly dressed, though, seeing as how he was wearing a long dark cape and such... And the man seemed to be just as confused as he was, perhaps even more.

The young blonde thought that maybe they were both brought there for the same means. "Hey," he called in his not only high-pitched but also digital-sounding voice. "Do you know where we are, or at the very least, how we got here?"

Unfortunately for the poor vocaloid, he did not expect this man to be from an anime a bit more hardcore than his. The man spun around, expecting this kid to be some sort of threat, and glared at him with his piercing sharingan eyes, ready to attack.

This, of course, scared the crap out of the innocent little blonde. He stumbled backwards onto the ground, certainly not expecting anything like what he just saw. "Wh-who are you? What happened to your eyes?" he stuttered.

The ninja's eyes faded back to their usual dark color, this child was no threat, at least. _Who is this girl... _he wondered, mistaking the high-pitched vocaloid for a female, as many do. He turned, about to walk away. "There's nothing wrong with my eyes," he replied. "It's called the sharingan, a special trait belonging to members of my clan..." he explained, ignoring the digital sound in his voice. "Anyway, who are you?" the Akatsuki member asked, thinking he could get some information from this 'girl'. "And where are we?"

The vocaloid was still confused as to what exactly a 'sharingan' was, and who this weird man was. "Eto... I'm Len Kagamine," he answered. "But I have no idea where we are, or what this place is..." he explained. By then, it was pretty clear to him that they were both brought there by the same means, but neither had any idea how they got there. _If he's not from around here, and he's clearly not where I'm from, then I wonder where this guy came from... _Len wondered.

The ninja narrowed his eyes. _This girl isn't helping any... _he thought, about to walk away. The Akatsuki member thought that perhaps he was in some sort of genjutsu at first, but that was beginning to look less likely.

Suddenly, the Akastuki froze, spinning around to see the red-haired Jinjuriki that stood only a few yards away, a large gourd slung over his back.

The newcomer walked up to the two boys and glanced at Len, inspecting him quickly. _He poses no threat..._ he thought.

In turn, Len took a moment to look over this second ninja. No swirling red eyes, at least... but he couldn't help but wonder what was in that gourd he kept with him; bodies? Len stepped back slightly.

Mainly ignoring the young vocaloid, the ginger turned to the other ninja and asked, "Did you or any other Akatsuki member take me to this strange place?" he wanted to know how he got to this place, and if the Akatsuki was the reason, then he wanted him to send him back, even if he had to force him. He glared slightly at the other ninja, awaiting an answer.

"Hn." the cloak-wearing ninja grunted. "No, I am just as confused as you are." he replied honestly. "One minute I am headed to a meeting, the next I am here."

"Eto..." Len spoke up, glancing between the two. "Are you guys, um, real ninjas?" he asked unsurely. He was wondering if these two just looked scary or if they were actually dangerous.

The ginger returned his attention to Len. "Yes, we are real ninjas." he answered simply. _His voice sounds... inhuman... _he thought. His body was stiff, ready to fight the Akatuki member if needed.

The silence was broken at the sound of a slightly confused teenage girl. "Hey! Random cosplayers!" she called. "What are you doing in my backyard?"

All three heads turned to the otaku. She was pretty short, so the two ninjas could pretty much tower over her. But her most distinguishing feature was her hair, which looked extremely fluffy and curly. While it only reached down to her shoulders, it poofed out several inches from the sides of her head. Also, a very confused face was positioned behind her glasses.

The Akatsuki's head whipped around. "Perfect," he growled, glaring at the otaku.

"Oops, I didn't realize we were on someone else's property..." Len commented innocently. "Wait, cosplayers? You sure look like 'em but aren't you real ninjas like you said?" he asked.

The redhead nodded slowly. _Cos... players...? _he asked himself, confused on the very meaning of the word. He then turned his attention to the other ninja. "She looks like she's from here." he commented. "We should go talk to her." He began to walk towards the girl, the two others following.

"What are you screaming about _now_, Alyssa?" a slightly irritated voice asked. Following outside behind the first otaku came a second, one that was nearly a head taller than the first, also with shoulder-length brown hair but strait hair that was much more tamed. Her eyes quickly fell upon the Akatsuki cloak. It was the best Itachi cosplay she had ever seen, every detail was perfect. The others were equally impressive. "Those guys are really good cosplayers..." she started. "But what are they doing here?"

"I was thinking the same thing..." Alyssa commented.

"Ooh! Ooh! What are we talking about?" a hyper third fangirl called out, running between the two others. She was practically bouncing, like she had just drank at least three cups of coffee. Scary thing is, that's what she's usually like, without a drop of caffeine in her system. She froze and stared in awe at the 'cosplayers', particularly the ginger, Gaara. Gingers were among her favorite anime characters.

The three characters glanced between each other unsurely. The whole concept of the situation only confused them the longer they were trapped in it. Len hesitantly made his way to the front of the group of characters. "Ahem, um, none of us are cosplayers..." he told them a bit unsurely. "But anyway... we were just wondering where we are, and how we got here, if you girls have any idea." he said, trying to sound friendly.

His timid request for help was met with a spaz attack from Alyssa. "HOLY CRAP MAN HOW'D YOU DO THAT TO YOUR VOICE?" she shrieked, suddenly shaking him by the shoulders. She had caught the digital tone he had rather quickly. It sounded exactly like Vocaloid software. No cosplayer is _that _good. "Taylor-san! Grace-chan! Did ya hear that?"

"Ah! What?" Len exclaimed back, breaking away from Alyssa's grasp. "Whaddya mean? My voice has always been like this!" he told her. This surreal reality definitely got stranger the longer one was in it.

"Yeah... I heard..." Taylor, the tall one, replied. _There... there's no way they're real... _she thought.

Grace, the hyper one, considered the possibility of what Alyssa had implied. _OMG REAL ANIME CHARACTERS?_ she screamed in her head. She then turned to Gaara, and started really losing it. _Oh my god... I'm dreaming then. I'm dreaming! There's no way that's the real Gaara! _

Taylor stared at Itachi, and he stared right back at her. "You... you guys aren't cosplayers, are you?" she asked cautiously. They couldn't be, they looked to real. And as Alyssa had pointed out, they _sounded _too real.

"I have never heard of these... cosplayers..." Gaara replied monotonously. "We were just wondering if you could help us."

"Th-then you..." Taylor's eyes widened, and her gaze snapped to Itachi. "Guys, be careful..." she warned, pointing to Itachi. "He can be dangerous."

Grace barely managed to approach Gaara without fainting. _Oh my god... there's no way this is happening... this is too good to be true! _Then she glanced towards the other character from the Naruto series... Itachi Uchiha. "I-Itachi?" she asked shakily. "Oh my god we're so dead..."

"So you've heard of me?" Itachi asked, showing no signs of emotion.

All the otakus plus Len stayed silent, afraid of the most dangerous character from the Naruto show.

* * *

><p>AN- Yay my first fanfiction! I should point out though that this is actually based off of a roleplay thread I did with a few close friends, and therefore Cheetay and Animegal1251 deserve some credit for their character choices and driving the storyline and all that. Also... more animes to come! I promise!


	2. Characters Meet Otakus

Len looked between the otakus and Itachi nervously, unsure of what would happen next. "Wait, wh-what do you mean 'we're so dead'?" he asked shakily, thinking back to everything he had seen the ninja do thus far. He had nearly attacked him the first time he saw Len, or at least he looked like he was about to attack, and his eyes had turned a bright red with some strange swirling pattern in them. Did that have something to do with the deadly power these girls were implying that he had? "I... I heard he was a real ninja, but... is he really that dangerous?" he asked, starting to freak out. "I don't even know where I am or what's going on at all! And already the sharingan-ninja-deadly-guy might try to kill me?"

"Caaaaaaaaalm Lenny-chan..." One of the otakus spoke, suddenly clinging to him. "Every time I see you freak out like this on Youtube it usually ends in suicide... I'm still trying to believe the insane reality that you're even real! So you can't die again!" she told him bluntly. The fact that Len was not only an actual living being but also that she had found him**in her own backyard **made her so happy that she couldn't even process how wonderful it was... and while she may have been overreacting slightly to Len's fear she just didn't want him to die, for the hundredth time. "This isn't the Internet! If you die then you won't come back in another song!" Alyssa pleaded.

"... ... What?" Len replied. He became more confused with every sentence he heard from these strange young girls. "Youtube? Internet? How do you know me at all? And what do you mean die _again_?" he continued asking.

_I guess he doesn't know that he's just a voice program and a character in songs..._ Alyssa thought. "Um, that could be hard to explain..." Alyssa replied, still hugging him.

Len glanced nervously at Itachi again. The ninja kept this sour look on his face, which to Len looked like it said he wanted to kill someone. Len tried hard not to make eye contact with him.

"Rawr stop worrying about Itachi-baka, Len!" Alyssa scolded, having a very limited knowledge of the Naruto series.

A dark pair of eyes found themselves glaring at Alyssa at the mention of 'Itachi-baka'.

"You're the only one really concerned." Alyssa continued. "And so far he hasn't attacked anyone, right?"

"Um... If you say so..." Len replied, not entirely believing her when she tried to explain that Itachi wasn't as dangerous as he thought.

"Rawr Len listen to the otakus!" Alyssa ranted on. Although really she didn't know much about Itachi at all, she just didn't Len freaking our or anything. "We'll kill Itachi if we have to, just don't worry about him sheesh!"

Shock overwhelmed Grace as she heard Alyssa's last statement, she then glanced at the black-haired murderer, awaiting his next move.

"If that's a threat then you're a very foolish little girl..." Itachi replied. "You only have one life, do you really want to throw it away?"

"Meep!" Alyssa chirped, being dragged out of her dreamworld with Len. Her knowledge of Naruto was vague, but she still should've known better than to say such a thing about Itachi Uchiha. "I didn't mean it!" she said quickly. "I was just... um... Please don't kill me!" she pleaded as she grabbed Len's arm and hid behind Gaara, dragging the young vocaloid behind her. She didn't know Gaara's character at all, though... but she could only hope that this red-haired man was a good guy who would save her from the more dangerous ninja.

Itachi stared at the poofy-haired otaku cowering behind the shinobi. He took out a shuriken and threw it at Gaara, to which Gaara just crossed his arms and let his sand do all the work, which caught the shuriken in mid-air just before reaching his face. "Fighting with you over an irritating little girl would just waste my time and chakra." Itachi stated as he watched Gaara's sand retreat into his gourd.

"S-sand..." Len stuttered, taking in Gaara's unique ability. "He can control sand..." he said dumbly, staring wide-eyed. He had officially begun to freak out.

"Are you alright?" Gaara asked Alyssa and Len in his usual monotone voice.

"Uh... y-yeah, I'm fine." Alyssa replied shakily.

Len however wasn't coping as well. This surreal reality sent him into a bit of a mental shock. "I... I can't take this anymore..." Len whimpered, curled up in a ball on the ground. "What is this place? What are these superhuman ninjas doing here?" he screamed, certainly not coping well with this new world.

Alyssa turned to the young vocaloid looking rather concerned. Poor thing wasn't doing very well in this world at all, he looked like he'd completely snapped. "Len-chan...?" she called unsurely. "You ok?"

Len didn't bother replying with words this time. He was too busy with his own thoughts of panic swarming in his head. _Where am I? How did I get here? Where are the other vocaloids? Am I the only one who wound up here? When will I see Rin again? Rin... what's she thinking right now? Does she even know I'm gone?_

* * *

><p>Leaving the otakus to handle Len, Gaara turned his attention to Itachi, keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn't attack again.<p>

Itachi stared right back at him. "You know, I'm surprised you're even alive right now, Jinjuriki demon." Itachi told him, eager for his reaction.

"Sometimes, it's even surprising to me." Gaara replied calmly, rather than becoming angered like most demon hosts and as Itachi expected. "I can thank Naruto and Lady Chiro for that."

Itachi blinked and looked away.

Gaara didn't see Itachi as a threat anymore and returned his attention to Len and the others. He felt pity for the poor boy, curled up on the ground. With his hair and eye color, he reminded Gaara of Naruto in a way.

* * *

><p>"Alyssa is he gonna be ok?" Grace spoke up. "He looks like he's having a mental breakdown..." She stared at Len freaking out and tried to summon up all her knowledge of Vocaloid characters. <em>Let's see... Vocaloids have cool voices... they're good singers... and they each have one signature item that they like... What was Len's again? Len likes... oranges? No wait that's Rin... Len likes bananas! <em>she thought trimphantly. She then looked at the blonde and asked, "Len, would you like a banana?" hoping that would make him feel better.

"Hm?" Len asked, opening his eyes and uncurling slightly. Grace had succeeded in catching his attention, at least. Although he really should've been concerned about how these girls knew so much about him, really he was just happy to hear about something familiar, something that was the same even in this insane world. "Y-yes..." he nodded. "Yes please."

_Yes I was right for once! _Grace thought victoriously. "Um... I'll be right back!" she told Len before turning around and heading into Alyssa's house. It was kinda small in there so the kitchen was pretty easy to find. She quickly opened the fridge and grabbed the yellow fruit she came in search of, then darted back outside and over to Len. "Here you go!" she chirped, handing him the banana.

Len sat up enough to gratefully accept the fruit from her. Although it was a bit freaky that these girls knew such presice details as even his favorite food, but still, their kindness was comforting. "Thank you, er, what's your name?" he asked, beginning to peel the banana.

"Hi I'm Grace!" the otaku replied hyperly. "And the fluffy-haired one who was hugging you before is Alyssa, and the third fangirl who's just observing right now is Taylor." she explained. "And you're Len right? Nice to meet you!" she exclaimed happily. "Oh and incase you don't know already, that's Gaara and Itachi." she informed him, pointing to the two ninjas.

_I wonder how they know us already... _Gaara thought. The three girls seemed to know a lot about the three characters.

"Hn." was Itachi's only reply. He then closed his eyes and focused, searching for any strong chakra signatures in an attempt to find another Akastuki member. He found none, though. _Where am I...? _Itachi wondered once again.

"Uh, yeah, that's me." Len replied to the girls, smiling nervously. With everything Alyssa had said, and how Grace knew he loved bananas, he really wasn't all that surprised that they knew his name. He still had no clue how or why they knew all this, though. "Um... I do have one major question for you, though..." he told them, nomming on his banana.

"Sure what is it Len I'll tell you anything you wanna know...~!" Alyssa cooed, lost in fangirl world again.

"Ok, well, um... Where am I?" Len asked. "Where and what is this place?"

Gaara and Itachi stopped what they were doing and turned to the girls, also awaiting an answer. "Um... well..." Grace started, unsure of what to say, exactly. "Um... this is my friend's backyard... in America... and it's a Saturday..." she told them unsurely.

"America?" Gaara asked. "What is that? I've never heard of such a place..." he explained. He and Itachi had never heard of any place outside the five great nations of his world.

Grace was at a loss for words. _How do I explain to them what America is? Does Len know what America is? Oh god this is going to be a very long day... _Grace thought, trying to come up with something to say to them.

"America?" Len asked. "But how... how did I get here?" he asked slightly afraid. He was so far from home, and he was safe and sound back at home just a few minutes ago, what was going on. "I'm no expert on America... but I'm pretty sure it isn't filled with strange girls who somehow know everything about you and freakish ninjas that can make their eyes change color and control sand." Len replied. "This is more than just being in another country. This is like... another realm or something..."

Gaara looked at Len. "Another realm?" he echoed. It did make some sense, but it was just too far-fetched for him to believe.

"That would explain those strange moving things I saw..." Itachi commented, refering to cars, since they had none in the world he came from. "But if that's true then it still doesn't explain how we got here. Another country would make more sense, even if it's one I've never heard of, but both explanations are just too unrealistic for me to believe..." he explained. Itachi was a smart ninja, top of his class, he had graduated school earlier than others because of his intellect and skill, but both these explanations were just to rediculous for him to consider, they completely went against his sense of reason.

Grace looked at Alyssa for help. _I suck at explaining things... and I don't think they'd believe me if I said they were just made-up characters... _

Taylor sighed. She had just been observing for the past few minutes, but it seemed like Grace and Alyssa didn't have a clue how to handle the situation. "In this world, the two of you," she cut in, pointing to Gaara and Itachi. "Are imaginary characters in a manga series called 'Naruto', and you," she pointed to Len. "Are nothing more than a computer program for an artificial voice. Sorry."

"Wh-what?" Len stuttered. In his own world, he wasn't much better. He knew that he was an artificial creation, but still at least he had a body and a mind of his own as well as a life he got to live every day. Not just... what she said... "Just a program?" he asked. What did that mean? That his own voice was just something people could download onto their computers? What would anyone even use it for?

Itachi's eyes turned cold as he glared down at Taylor. "I take it you girls are the reason for us being here, then?" he asked.

"Nope." Taylor replied, eyes calm. "We're just as lost as you."

Gaara looked a bit lost on the situation. "Wait... are you telling me that... that I'm not real? That my whole life was fake?"

"Well... that's what I used to think," Grace replied. "But you're here now, that proves that you're real!" she cheered. "Well you know as long as you can feel pain and stuff." She pinched Gaara's arm.

"I can barely feel that..." Gaara replied monotonously, staring down at her.

"You say we are fake in your world, that we are in books..." Itachi growled, narrowing his eyes at the otakus. "Does that mean you know things about us?"

Taylor and Grace glanced at each other nervously. "U-uh... a little bit..." Taylor lied.

"Yeah I really don't know that much about you guys..." Grace added nervously, looking down at her feet.

Itachi narrowed his eyes untrustingly.

"Anyway..." Gaara continued, still looking at Grace a bit suspiciously. "How did we get here?" he asked. "And how are we supposed to get home?"

Itachi and Len turned to Grace, also awaiting an answer.

"Don't look at me! I wouldn't know!" Grace declared.

"Yeah we... really have no idea..." Taylor added.

Alyssa nodded in agreement. "Nope, not a clue."

* * *

><p>AN- Working along slowly but surely! Tell all your friends!


	3. The Internet's Power and a New Character

Itachi scowled slightly, ignoring the fangirls and the other two characters. He wanted to figure out how to get back to his own world and these two didn't seem to be helping. _There has to be a clue somewhere... _he thought, walking inside Alyssa's house and up some stairs.

"W-wait... so... all the other vocaloids, like Rin and Miku, we're all just programs in this world? Just mass-produced voices?" Len asked, clutching his throat self-conciously. He didn't like the news he was hearing at all, in fact he looked like he was about to cry. It was awful to think that one's existance was something so miniscule. Vocaloid isn't even that mainstream to those outside the scope of otakus and weaboos and such.

Alyssa saw the despair in Len's face and thought he was going to freak out again. "Gah Taylor are you _trying _to make him lose it again?" Alyssa yelled at her.

Taylor stared calmly at Alyssa and decided to play it cool. "Well young grasshopper... the sooner he learns to accept it, the better. The way I see it, keeping peace by lying isn't right."

Everyone stared at her.

_That sounds familiar somehow... _Grace thought, trying to figure out where she had heard it before. "You sounded like Gaara from that one chapter..." she whispered to Taylor once she had gotten it, quietly enough so that Gaara wouldn't hear. She had memorized almost all of his major quotes, apparently. Grace then turned to the vocaloid and asked "Want another banana?"

Taylor sighed. "Len don't worry. We'll make sure you get back to your own world, ok? I promise on Alyssa's life."

Alyssa glared at her slightly.

"Yeah don't worry so much, Len!" Grace cheered. "You'll get home in no time! And this world isn't so bad, either. There are so many things people do with bananas in this world I swear! They put chocolate on them... and put them in ice cream... and my cousin puts them in cereal!"

"I-if you say so..." Len replied unsurely, looking at the ground. "So um, girls, you said that in this world I'm a computer program right? Just my voice and all."

"Yeaaaaah..." Alyssa answered him. "So...?"

"What do they even use my voice for?" he asked. "Or the other vocaloids... but the point is what could someone do with a mere voice?"

"Weeeeell you're a singer, right?" Alyssa asked him.

Len nodded slowly.

"Well that's exactly what people buy when they get a vocaloid! An artificial singer~!" she told him enthusiastically. "They get a voice that they can program to sing any words and tune they want~! And then they make a song with an epic music video and post in on the Internet, most of which are songs that tell fanfic-like stories of your lives! Except as far as you and Rin's songs go they're usually all tragic and end in at least one of you dying..." she explained.

"Well that's... nice to think about..." Len replied unsurely, scratching his head. _Well at least now I know what she was talking about when she said she had seen me die before... _

"Here lemmie show youz~!" she cheered, grabbing Len's wrist and dragging him inside the house.

"Gah where are you taking me?" Len exclaimed, not enjoying being dragged.

"To a computer, duh. I wanna show you videos of yourself on Youtube!" she cheered. The two voices faded as the side door shut behind them, Alyssa having dragged Len away to their own little world...

Grace, Taylor and Gaara soon followed behind them. "A computer?" Gaara asked, since there were none in his world. "What is that?"

"Uhhh... Come inside and I'll show you." Grace replied, not sure how to even begin explaining what a computer was to a character like Gaara. The three of them then made their way inside.

* * *

><p>Itachi had left the group without drawing much attention to himself and was searching Alyssa's house feverishly, searching for anything that might help him figure out how he got to this strange world, or how to get back. Seeing as how it was a small house, he hadn't searched for very long before he came across what looked like a teenage girl's bedroom, presumably Alyssa's. Mostly it was just a small, messy room with a bunch of random items scattered about, and barely room to even walk through.<p>

There was a desk that was covered in papers, folders and binders from the recently-ended school year. Itachi didn't spend much time overlooking what was on top of the desk, but as he tried opening one of the drawers as part of his search he found that it was so jam-packed with trash and discarded items that it would barly open. Deciding it wasn't worth the effort to get it open any farther, he closed it back up and continued looking at the different parts of the room more closely.

Next he glanced at her bed, which was so cluttered he wondered where this girl slept at night. First thing that caught his eye was the shiny tin full of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, of course he didn't have a clue what they were. He only touched the lid slightly and it popped off, spewing the small cards all over her bed, and implying that Alyssa should probably invest in a second tin. Itachi wasn't sure what to make of these mysterious-looking cards... Many of them had detailed drawings of strange monsters, beasts, warriors and scorcerers. Others were labeled as "traps" or "spells", and depicted events that could turn the tide of a battle, or "duel" as the cards often said. Skimming over what was written on many of the cards, he often heard things regarding technicalities about summoning a certain monster. For example "_This monster cannot be normal summoned, this monster can only be special summoned by..."_ and so on. _Summoning... monsters? _Itachi asked himself. _Are these cards made for the summoning of monsters and effects in battle? _Intrigued by the concept, Itachi pocketed a handful of the cards and hid them in his cloak. He planned to try using summoning jutsu on them later.

The next thing Itachi noticed lying on the girl's bed were three game systems that closed up in a laptop-style. Of course the Akatsuki member didn't have a clue what they were. All he saw were three metalic objects, one was a light chrome blue with the name "Rayray" stickered on, the smallest of the three systems. The next had a solid pink exterior with a large black circle in one corner, a camera lens, and in the same stickers the name "Ilu". This "Ilu", as it was called, was nearly twice the size of Rayray. The last was a dark chrome blue, only a bit larger than Ilu, with two smaller black lenses on it, and was apparently named "Kira". _What... are these? _he wondered. Truthfully, they were merely three Nintendo handheld systems that were given names by their mentally unstable owner. A Gameboy Advanced SP, a DSi, and a 3DS, respectively, but all Itachi saw were three strange, foreign objects. Highly confused by them, he decided to simply leave them be without bothering to open them.

The last thing on Alyssa's bed was a bright red box. Not metallic like the others, more like it was made of cardboard or some sort of thick paper. Not only that, but the box was already opened, slightly revealing two silvery packages inside. He eyed the logo on the front curiously. "Pocky...?" It appeared to be food of some sort, but Itachi was smarter than to just eat something when he didn't know what it was, so he let that be as well.

Lastly he approached the bookshelf, which seemed to be cluttered with a lot of old picture books from when Alyssa was younger that she was too lazy to get rid of. One of the shelves, however, seemed to be reserved solely for manga. Not surprizingly, the first manga to catch his eye was his own, the title "NARUTO" clearly visible on the spine of the book. He snatched the book from the shelf and quickly started flipping through the pages. His eyes grew wide as he began to skim over the images...

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, another flash of purple light appeared in yet another world. This one taking not only a young teenage boy but also his closest companion, who was born from his very heart's desires, his Shugo Chara.<p>

Once the light cleared and the boy's vision returned, he found himself in an uncommon predicament... He was on a rooftop somewhere, in the middle of a city he was completely unfamiliar with. Confused, he scanned the surrounding area, trying to catch sight of something familar. "Where... where are we?" he asked his Shugo Chara, surprizingly calmly considering the situation.

"No idea-nya..." the tiny catboy replied, floating next to him. "And what was that weird flash of light about-nya?" he asked.

The Shugo Chara's owner didn't answer, he was too busy thinking of what to do, how to get home.

"Ikuto!" the Chara called. "How'd we get here-nya?"

"I have no idea, Yoru..." Ikuto replied back calmly. Without a clue where he was or what had happenned to him, his best idea was just to start wandering and see if he could pick up any clues on where he was, how he got there or how he was supposed to get home. "Character change..." he said softly. Immediately after a pair of cat ears and a tail sprouted from his body, resembling that of Yoru's. Ikuto then began hopping across the rooftops with catlike speed and accuracy, hoping to find some clues as to what was going on.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, the otakus and remaining characters were huddled around the computer as it booted up.<p>

"What is this strange device?" Gaara asked. "Is it a weapon?"

"No silly," Grace laughed at him. "It's mainly for searching for information, pictures, videos, and talking to people!" she explained.

Gaara was still a bit confused as he stared at the monitor.

Once Firefox loaded up, the first thing anyone did was Len tried Googling his own name. He was still extremely curious as to what he was like as a program in this world. The first thing on the search result list was a Wikipedia article on him, which, really wasn't that surprizing to the otakus. "Kagamine Rin and Len..." he began reading. "is the second product released on December 27, 2007, they are Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series developed by Crypton Future Media, male voice (Len) and female voice (Rin). Their family name was from the developing code combining _Kagami_ (mirror) and _Ne_ (sound)..."

"See Len-chan? We weren't lying!" Alyssa told him, unaware of the fact that there was a dangerous ninja searching her room.

"Hey guys, does anyone know where Itachi went?" Taylor interrupted.

Alyssa ignored her and opened up another tab. "I think you'll find this more interesting than Wiki, Len..." she told him as she typed in the Youtube URL. She then looked up Len's name again, and a list of songs came up that were mostly all by him. Prisoner, Servant of Evil, Adolescence, The Riddle Solver Who Won't Solve Riddles...

"Are these... all songs that people have made using my voice?" he asked.

"Yup!" Alyssa replied enthusiastically. "Some of it's your sister's, too, but that's to be expected... and then it's the same for all the other vocaloids, too. Miku, Kaito, Meiko, Gakupo, Luka, Piko..." she listed.

Len began to watch one of the songs and was amazed at how high-quality his program was. "It sounds... just like me..." he said, amazed. And he was grateful that in this world there was at least a character that looked like him, too.

"Can that thing show you anything?" Gaara asked, refering to the computer.

Grace sweatdropped. "Well... not everything... but everything that people wanted to show to the world, at least."

"Is there anything from my world on there?" Gaara asked.

"Um..." Grace hesitated for a moment, conflicted on whether she should tell him or not. "Yes... a lot of stuff from your world is on here." she told him. "Here look!" she exclaimed happily as she searched up a Gaara AMV.

Gaara stared at the screen with interest. _I don't remember the fights being... that flashy... _he thought.

"Sure, ignore me for the computer..." Taylor mumbled, having been thouroughly ignored by everyone. _Now I know how Canada feels... _she thought. "Guys, there's a dangerous nukinin in the house! Where is he?"

"I think I saw him head upstairs a while ago..." Gaara answered her, not taking his eyes off the computer screen.

"Great now he's addicted to computers..." Grace mumbled. "First the cookies now the Internet, what's next?"

"Oh... please don't let him find Alyssa's Naruto manga..." Taylor mumbled to herself before running off in search of him.

The others continued to be distracted by the wonderful invention of the Internet.

* * *

><p>Taylor was about to climb the stairs to find Itachi, but as she turned the corner to the stairs she wound up being grabbed by the dangerous Akatsuki, and pulled out of visual distance without the others taking notice.<p>

Itachi glared at her, the manga still in his hand. "You're going to tell me just how many of these there are." he whispered ferociously, holding the manga up to her.

"W-well..." Taylor whispered back quietly. "In America there are fifty..."

"And just how much do the other forty-nine volumes tell, exactly?" he growled.

Taylor glanced back into the other room, a bit peeved, as the others continued to fuss over the computer.

"Answer my question." Itachi demanded.

"Fine." Taylor grumbled. "We know everything about you. Past and future, happy? Now release me please..."

Itachi's arms fell to his side. "Then that means you know..."

"Everything." Taylor repeated, looking him in the eye. "Which is why I don't hate, nor am I scared to death by you, Itachi."

* * *

><p>Ikuto, with his speed, had managed to travel a good distance from the inner-city where he was, and was then in a much more rural area. Due to his usual stealth, he thought that he had managed to get this far without many people noticing him. Which was true, as far as most people go, people who are oblivious to the bizzare anime epidemic, people who didn't know that anime characters of all sorts were being thrown into their world. There were a few others, though, a group of people who knew very well that there were characters lurking about, and were working to figure out some sort of solution.<p>

"Ikutoooo..." Yoru whined. "I feel like we're being watched-nya..."

Ikuto glanced around the surrounding area, but, as far as he could tell, there was no one following them or anything. "I don't see anyone..." he told Yoru. He then sighed. "Maybe we should rest here, though..." he suggested, as he was tired from wandering this whole way. The place they had found themselves in was mostly wooded, anyway, so it seemed that they would be able to sleep without being disturbed.

"Makes sense to me-nya." Yoru replied.

Ikuto then walked just a bit further into the wooded area before he found a convinient place to curl up and take a catnap in. Unaware of the fact that, as Yoru had sensed, the two of them were indeed being watched.


	4. Stranger Danger

The next twenty minutes or so were spent showing the characters all sorts of videos of themselves on Youtube. Len got to witness a lot of Vocaloid songs, Gaara and Itachi saw a lot of AMV's of themselves, many of which were just funny videos that Taylor found for the otakus' entertainment, and so on...

Len, being a vocaloid and all, really didn't know anything about the Naruto series or anything, but as he watched the AMV's of Gaara and Itachi, he noticed that they seemed to have been through a lot of tragic times and vicious battles. Sure, most of the songs he was featured in were more on the tragic side as well, but at least the scenario was a little different for him so none of those things had ever happened to him. "Wait, so... is this all stuff that really happened to you guys?" Len asked the two ninjas, wanting to make sure.

Gaara looked down at the ground. These girls and now even Len knew his entire history. "Yes..." he replied monotonously.

"Hn." Itachi grunted, though the answer was obvious.

"So basically... you two suffered through all this just because some manga author thought it would make an interesting story?" Len asked. He found their stories even more tragic if _that _was the reason behind all their suffering.

Niether Gaara or Itachi replied.

"That's... so awful..." Len commented sadly.

"But," Grace interrupted. "You're lives haven't been all bad, right? I know for sure Gaara's had some good times, and Len I don't know a lot about you but I'm sure you've had good times with Rin and the other vocaloids, right?" she told them, trying to lighten the mood.

"Well, that much is true..." Len replied.

Gaara nodded.

"And Itachi," she continued. "Your life wasn't so bad before you-"

She was cut off with a death glare from the Uchiha.

"Ok fine I won't talk about it..."

"And let's not forget," Alyssa spoke up. "You three wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for Kishimoto and Crypton, riiiiight?"

"That's also true..." Len agreed.

"And Len, I'm sure you could have some fun times before you go home, too! I'm sure Alyssa could take you to some places you'd have fun at. And Itachi... I'm not sure if you're capable of having fun anymore... but I'm sure Taylor would find a way..." Grace continued. "And Gaara, you just need a hug."

"Huh?" the confused ginger asked, but instead of a verbal response he was quickly glomped by Grace, the sand not even trying to stop her. "What are you doing?" he asked, sounding shocked, for a change.

"Giving you a hug!" Grace chirped hyperly. "I don't think you've ever gotten one, and you really needed one!"

"Please get off of me..." the redhead replied.

"Aww... fine." Grace replied, reluctantly letting go of the ninja.

The next several minutes were spent trying to figure out what to do to make the characters feel more at home in this world. Alyssa tried to figure out how she would possibly get her hands on a roadroller for Len, Grace mentioned to Gaara that she has a neighbor that sells cacti, and so on, until finally Taylor brought about a change of pace.

"Mya... I'm hungry..." she complained. "Alyssa, do you have any chocolate liquor...?"

"Chocolate liquor?" Len echoed.

"Yes yes I have some in my room..." Alyssa replied, dashing past the two ninjas to retrieve some.

"You'll see, Len..." Taylor told the confused vocaloid as she listened to Alyssa's footsteps thunder through her small house.

Moments later, Alyssa came running back down the stairs, triumphantly holding a red box of otaku joy in her hands. "Found it!" she chirped exitedly. "And I'm guessing none of you have ever heard of Pocky, right? YOU MUST TRY SOME RIGHT NOW!" she ranted, handing a chocolate-covered stick to each of the characters first, then sharing some with the otakus to be fair.

Itachi scowled, looking down at the snack that had just been handed to him. Judging by the otakus' reactions, it almost appeared as if it contained some kind of drug. "No." he growled, handing his stick of Pocky to Taylor.

"Come on Itachi...!" Taylor urged. "This stuff's better than Dango!"

"I doubt that highly." he replied sourly.

"Well... ... mya." Taylor said back, taking Itachi's Pocky for herself.

Len and Gaara were enjoying thiers, at least. So for the next few minutes it was just the otakus as well as Len and Gaara nomming away at Alyssa's Pocky, whilst the otakus all got slightly otaku-high between the chocolate liquor as well as the day's excitement catching up with them.

* * *

><p>"Ikutooo! Ikutoooooo!" Yoru's shrill voice cried out. "Wake up! There are a bunch of weirdos trying to capture you in your sleep-nya!"<p>

Ikuto awoke slowly at first, glancing up to see Yoru's urgent-looking face. However once he caught sight of the strange men surrounding him, his cat-like reflexes put him on his feet in barely a second. Unfortunately for him, though, his hands had already been cuffed behind his back. He spun around to face the men that had surrounded him. There were about five of them, all wearing dark-colored uniforms. "Who are you?" he asked cooly, not letting any fear show.

"Crap! He's awake!" one of them exclaimed. The troops looked rather inexperienced, probably due to the fact that Ikuto was their first attempt at capture. Still, they had some intimidating factors, like the fact that they each had a gun on them. Merely for their own protection, though, considering their orders were to bring the character back to base, not to kill him, at least for the time being.

After a moment of silence, one of the men stepped forward. "We don't want to hurt you." he told the confused character, hands up to show that he meant no harm.

"Then why did you attempt to capture me in my sleep?" Ikuto asked them, eyes narrowed. Whatever these men were after, they were clearly a danger. The best thing for Ikuto to do was to get away from them as soon as possible.

The apparent leader of the group narrowed his eyes back at the character. "It's best you come with us without a fight." he warned, reaching towards his gun. Though it was just meant to intimidate the character into submission.

Suddenly cat ears and a tail appeared on Ikuto's body, and a second later he sprinted off to safety, Yoru following closely behind him.

But he had barely covered any distance before a gunshot could be heard behind him, and Ikuto felt a sharp pain in his left leg. "Argh!" he cried out in pain, collapsing on his injured limb, barely able to walk anymore.

"Ikuto!" Yoru gasped, floating closer to his owner.

Meanwhile, angered shouts from the troops could be heard behind him. "You idiot! The Boss said not to harm him!"

"He said not to _kill _him, and just bring him back to base until we figure out what to do with the characters. I'm sure he'd understand if we had to hurt him in order to catch him, right?"

Ikuto tried his best to limp away. They way the strange men talked about him was highly unsettling. _Characters? What are they talking about? What are they planning on doing to me? _he thought, slightly panicked. All he wanted was to get away. That was easier said than done, though, as every step he took on his wounded leg sent a sharp pain up the rest of his body.

He couldn't travel very far before he was stopped by someone grabbing his arm. Turning around he realized that the troops had easily caught up to him, and he couldn't fight them off because he was still handcuffed. Before long, a second troop had grabbed his other arm. Ikuto soon found that struggling at this point seemed to be futile. He stopped trying to fight back, at least for the moment.

"Woah! Where'd the ears and tail come from!" a noob-like grunt exclaimed, playing with Ikuto's cat ears, which of course had been absent before the character change.

Ikuto scowled back at him, like a stray cat about to attack a foe.

The apparent leader of the group ignored the noob. "I told you it would be better for you if you didn't try to resist." he growled at the catboy.

* * *

><p>"Len-kuuuuuun!" Alyssa called, grabbing one of the last few pieces of Pocky from the box.<p>

"Yes...?" Len answered, turning in her direction to see her smiling at him deviously, holding a single stick of Pocky close to her mouth.

"Pocky game?" she offered.

"Um... how do you play?" Len asked innocently.

"DON'T ASK." Taylor stepped in before Alyssa could answer.

"Um... I guess I'll pass on that, then..." Len told her unsurely.

"Rawrrr you're no fun..." Alyssa complained, taking the last of the Pocky for herself.

"Mya... I'm still hungry... I say we go to my place and make ramen!" Taylor suggested. It was getting to be about lunch time anyway. "Away!" she exclaimed, grabbing Itachi by the wrist and racing out the door. "Come on!"

"Release me at once." Itachi demanded, looking like he wanted to kill her.

"Nope!" Taylor chirped back.

"Is it a good idea for her to be doing that?" Len asked meekly. Itachi still scared him quite a bit, and all.

Alyssa shrugged. "Naruto's not really my anime... so I don't know that much about the charas, but I do agree that Itachi looks kinda..." she trailed off as she watched another ninja, whom she also knew from her limited Naruto knowledge to be deadly at times, be dragged away as well by an even more bubbly and hyper fangirl.

"Yayyy~! Let's go make ramen with our favorite characters~!" she sang, Gaara being dragged behind her.

"Well then..." Alyssa said to herself after the other four of them were already out the door. "I guess we're all going..." She grabbed Len's wrist, ready to drag him along as well.

"You don't have to drag me, you know..." Len commented, even though Alyssa was still clinging to his wrist and not letting him go.

"Well I wanna." she told him bluntly as she left the house, closing the door behind her and then attempting to catch up to her friends and the other characters.

* * *

><p>AN- Ugh. Sorry this took so long. Writers block, procrastination, distraction, limited amount of computer access and so on...


	5. The Dream Turns to a Nightmare

"Ah... here we are!" Taylor chirped as they neared her house, still dragging Itachi by the wrist. "First off, a few ground rules for the characters... Itachi, no killing my pets, no matter _what _they do, got it?" she told him as she unlocked the door. "Second, no stealing my cookies, Gaara... and Len I don't think I need to worry about you..." she continued as she entered her home, the other otakus and characters following closely behind. "Now let's get cooking!"

"Yay for ramen!" Grace cheered, staying close to Taylor, meanwhile Gaara managed to sneak away into another room.

Alyssa followed in after them, still holding Len hostage.

"Can you let go of me now?" Len asked timidly. This fangirl had been clinging to him the entire walk to Taylor's, after all, and he wasn't even trying to escape her (at first).

"Mya... fine, we're already here, anyways." she replied, reluctantly freeing Len from her grasp.

Len rubbed his wrist, which had started hurting from Alyssa gripping it so much. He then scurried off to see where Gaara went, Alyssa following out of stalker-ness.

"Well then. I'll get some water boilling... and I think I have some chicken and broccoli in the freezer... hm..." Taylor hummed, getting preparations for ramen-making ready. "Huh? Where did everyone go?" she asked, turning around to suddenly notice that everyone but Itachi and herself had dissapeared from the kitchen.

"Computer." Itachi growled, staring out a window. Indeed, in the other room the four of them were gathered around Taylor's computer, once again browsing through Youtube and such. After all, it is a wonderful thing to meet real-life anime characters, and then show them what the fans think of them using the Internet. (And to think, they hadn't even touched deviantART yet.) "Your world sickens me." the Uchiha hissed.

"Well... yeah..." Taylor replied. "Compared to the Na-... er, your world, sure ours is messed up, but it's not that bad..."

"Hn."

A moment of silence passed. "Hey Itachi?"

No reply.

"Did you ever have a girlfriend?"

His eyes snapped to hers.

"I-I was just wondering..." Taylor stammered, avoiding his gaze. "Cuz a lot of people... pair you up with others... so I was just wondering..."

Itachi stared at her a moment before turning away. "No." he grunted.

* * *

><p>Ikuto had been thrown into the back of a black van, his hands cuffed behind his back and his bullet wound completely ignored. All of it made him feel like some sort of prisoner. Of course, being held against his will was nothing he wasn't used to, but never at this level.<p>

"Aye, Ikuto!" Yoru called, though his voice could only be heard by the catboy and not his captors. "You can't let them capture you like this! Who knows what they'll do! We should Character Transform and break out of here-nya!" Yoru pleaded.

Ikuto stayed silent. He figured that his injuries would only be made worse if he tried to rebel. After all, these men had shot him when he had merely refused to go with them peacefully. And at least he had heard that their orders were to keep him alive. These strangers would not kill him, but in that case, he could only wonder why they had captured him in the first place.

"What is the meaning of this?" Ikuto finally asked in his calm, cool voice. "Why did you capture me?"

One of the troops in the van with him sighed. "First off, this isn't your world..." he began to explain. "By unknown means, you have been transported to a world not your own, which would be this one, as well as many other beings like you." he told the confused catboy. "In fact, you're just a fictional character in this world. From some sort of... Japanese cartoon, was it?"

Another troop nodded. "Yeah, an anime." he corrected. "In this world, you're just an anime character. You don't really exist."

"Anime... character...?" Ikuto echoed dumbly, trying to piece it together in his mind. How could that be? Was his whole existance fake? And even if he was just a character, that didn't answer his question. "Even so, why did you capture me?" he asked again.

"Because you don't belong in this world." a somewhat harsher voice answered. "We are an organization formed to get rid of you anime characters, somehow. You and all the others who came here. But we don't know how you got into this world or how to send you back. So for now our job was just to capture you and bring you back to base. We'd figure out what to do with you then." he explained.

Ikuto sat there and absorbed everything these men were telling them. The line between friend and foe growing blurrier than ever. "So you're... sending me home?" he asked hesitantly, unsure of whether or not to trust these strangers. His eyes narrowed when he remembered the pain in his leg. He had been sitting there with it untreated for so long he had nearly forgotten about it. "Then why did you shoot me?"

"You... haven't met our boss." one answered. "We've seen other troops of his fail on other captures, and he isn't exactly the forgiving type... We just really didn't want to return to him empty-handed. That's all."

Ikuto tried to reassure himself that these men were only trying to help him. That they wanted him out of their world, and he wanted to go home, everyone would be happy. His thoughts were interrupted, however, by the voice of one of his captors.

"We're here!" the driver called as the van came to a stop.

Ikuto glanced out the nearest window to catch sight of an ominous black building. _These folks sure like black... _he muttered to himself.

Yoru hovered close to his master, feeling uneasy. He didn't like the aura these men set off. Or the sound of this organization. He feared for his master, and in turn, himself.

* * *

><p>"Hey guys! Ramen's done!" Taylor called, after she had been forced to make it herself. Itachi just didn't want any involvement with these girls and the rest were just computer addicts.<p>

"Yay for ramen!" Grace chirped as she came running in from the other room, and dived into the bowl of ramen that Taylor had handed her. Gaara, Len and Alyssa followed.

"Yayyy I get to eat Taylor's food~..." Alyssa hummed as she took her bowl of ramen and sat next to Grace.

Len took his and quietly sat next to Alyssa. He didn't feel like saying anything on account of the screaming fangirls from a few minutes ago that had given him a bit of a headache.

Gaara took his ramen and tasted some of it. It wasn't as good as the food in Sunagakure, but considering the situation he was in, where he had been thrown into a world not his own, he was fortunate to be getting fed like this at all, so he dealt with it.

Taylor started on her own bowl as she watched everyone happily slurping down noodles. "Heh, good thing Naruto's not here, eh Gaara?" Taylor joked.

"Hn." Itachi grunted.

"Hey! You know as well as me and Grace that you don't want to capture him," Taylor scolded. "So stop acting like your brother!"

In a split second, Itachi had pinned Taylor to the wall by her throat, sharingan spinning.

"You're really starting to annoy me, girl. Shut up." Itachi snarled.

Alyssa and Len gasped as they saw Itachi suddenly attack, Alyssa nearly choking on her ramen. Granted neither of them knew a thing about this ninja, really, but they knew he was dangerous.

"C-called it..." Len stuttered. He knew this ninja wasn't the best to be keeping around the house. He'd predicted that this sort of thing would happen.

"Stop being a butt-face you stupid Uchiha!" Grace's voice rang out as she ran over to him and kicked him weakly in the leg. Typical of Grace.

Gaara rolled his eyes slightly at Grace's attempt at doing something. Sand began to pour out of his gourd, then surrounded the Akatsuki member. "Release her..." Gaara demanded in his monotone voice.

Itachi ignored the others around him, sending Taylor into a genjustu. He released her right after, but remained still.

Alyssa leaned over to Grace and whispered, "What's he doing...?" having noticed that Taylor looked out of it. Alyssa had a very limited knowledge of Naruto, after all.

A second after Itachi released her, Taylor stood up and gasped for breath, staring sorrowfully at Itachi.

The weasel turned around and stared coldly at everyone. Barely giving it a second's more thought, he raced past Gaara and Alyssa and ran out the door, looking like a phantom with his shadowy cloak flowing behind him.

As he fled from sight, the sound of a spazzing fangirl broke the silence. "OMG TAYLOR ARE YOU OKAY?" Grace screeched, "Did he hurt you? Quick how many fingers am I holding up?" she asked frantically, showing Taylor three fingers. "Gah that won't help!"

Gaara sweatdropped as he watched Grace have a spaz attack over Taylor. _She's an odd one... _he thought. But of course, he had figured that out a while ago.

Taylor looked sadly back at Grace. "He... didn't do anything, just questioned me in a genjutsu..." she replied. She had gone too far, mentioning Sasuke like that...

* * *

><p>"S-so, Boss... what're we gonna do with this one?" one of the grunts asked timidly. Ikuto, currently their only captured character, had been brought to their boss, handcuffed so he couldn't escape.<p>

Ikuto kept his head down, trying to avoid any other conflict. They told him that their only concern was to somehow contain the characters that were appearing, that they couldn't let dozens or even hundreds of potentially dangerous characters running around in their world. This organization was made to make the characters secretive, and keep them from interfering with what went on in this world. However, it had also been implied that the boss of this group was a harsh and ruthless man. Given those two factors, he could only worry about what was to become of him.

"I've been thinking a lot about this..." their leader replied. "The situation itself seems impossible, fictional characters appearing in the real world, but yet it's happening. And of course, we have no idea how these characters got here, so we don't know how to bring them home." Thinking about what he just said, he leaned in closer to the dark-haired prisoner. "You, how did you get here?"

Ikuto looked up so that his eyes were level with the man's. He seemed a bit more reasonable than the troops had made him sound, but it was too early to let his guard down. "I don't know." he answered simply. "I was going about my day as usual, before I saw a bright purple flash, and the next thing I knew I was here. In this city." he explained.

Yoru, invisible to the rest, hovered close to his master, prepared to Character Change or Character Transform if necessary. He still didn't trust these people.

"Bright purple flash?" the boss echoed.

The catboy nodded. "Yes. That's all I remember."

The boss' eyes narrowed. Asking this captured character for information was his last chance at getting any real info as to what exactly was happening to cause this strange phenomenon, but he knew nothing. He sighed. "Just as I thought. We know nothing. And more characters are probably being sucked into this world as we speak."

"So... are we supposed to just keep him prisoner here until we can get more information?" one of the troops asked, acting like Ikuto wasn't even in the room.

"No." their leader replied simply. "We can't allow them to keep filling up in this world while we wait for more options. These characters are like pests, and we ar their exterminators. As such, we can just eliminate them the easy way."

A jolt of panic surged through Ikuto at this comment. _Th-they don't mean... _

"Sir, what are you trying to say?" one of the troops asked. He feared he knew the answer already, though. He kept a tight grip on their prisoner, knowing he would try to escape.

"Here," the boss replied. He reached into his coat pocket and took out a syringe, equipt with a sharp needle and filled with a dense yellow liquid. "I figured it would be this way, so I had this prepared ahead of time." he explained, handing the syringe off to one of his men. "Get this over with already."

Ikuto's blood ran cold at the sight of the needle. "Y-you... you can't!" he stammered, eyes wide and skin paled. Quickly he spun around and tried to escape them, but each step he took on his wounded leg was torture, and he was still a bit dizzy from the blood he had lost because of it. Besides, the men kept a firm hold on him and he was still cuffed.

"S-sir, with all due respect, we can't just kill people like this!" one protested. "It's unethical, it's-"

"Are you disobeying my orders? I said kill him." the boss answered. "Besides, he's not even from this earth. He sprouted cat ears and a tail, he's barely even human."

"I-Ikuto! We should Character Transform-nya!" the terrified Shugo Chara pleaded, worried out of his mind for Ikuto. "THEY CAN'T DO THIS-NYA!"

Ikuto nodded weakly, acting off of the sheer will to survive. "Character Transformation, Black Lynx..." he whispered desperately. In a flash, he had gone from the plain-looking young adult he was a moment ago to once again having his cat parts, the ears and tail, as well as a whole new outfit, with tearing metal claws protruding from the back of his right hand, and added strength.

Some of the troops jumped back slightly in surprize. As their boss had pointed out, their prisoner was no normal human, he was from another world, after all.

Summoning his reserved strength, Ikuto pulled his wrists apart and snapped the handcuffs that bound him, freeing his hands and arms. Using his catlike agility the best he could with his wounded leg, he made a mad dash for the nearest exit, running purely on adrenaline.

"You imbecils! Don't just stand there!" the boss roared as he chased after the catboy, and snatching the syringe from one of the other men. He stomped his foot down on the end of Ikuto's cape, causing the catboy to stop abruptly, landing badly on his injured leg, and stumble to the floor. The boss quickly pinned him down, not wanting their first successful capture to escape. He made a mental note to hire more effecient troops later on.

Ikuto looked around desperately for some sort of chance to escape. Anything that would save him. But as he looked around the room desperately, he stopped as he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his arm. Ikuto gasped as he looked down at himself to see the needle stuck in his arm, the poison being forced into him. "N-no..." he stuttered, his arm already feeling numb.

The boss released him a second after. Ikuto sprang out from under the man, struggling to his feet and tearing the needle out of his arm. But it was too late, the lethal poison had already been delivered. He clutched his head, suddenly feeling even more lightheaded than before.

The boss' men just stood and watched as the doomed character fell to the ground a second time, unable to stand anymore, his legs giving out underneath him.

_Ikutoooo! _Yoru's voice rang out from inside him. _Get up! Fight back! You can't let them do this, Ikuto! _his voice sounded like he was crying.

His breath grew shorter as he layed there. Unable to get up, barely able to move. Ikuto glared back painfully at the men surrounding him, but it was difficult just to keep his vision focused. The image of them grew hazier every painful second. He could still hear Yoru begging for him to live, but he couldn't make out the words anymore. A second later, he couldn't hear Yoru at all. _No... _he thought sadly, hoping desperately that none of it was real, that it was all just a dream. _It can't... end like this... _he thought as he drew his last breath.

The boss grinned triumphantly as he watched Ikuto's body fall limp, his eyes rolling back in his head. It had been a bit more of a struggle than neccessary for one measly character, but they would adapt. Killing off the characters as they appeared would become their job.

"S-sir..." one of the troops stuttered, still shocked by what he just witnessed. "You just-"

"Take care of the body." the boss ordered. "From now on, this is your job. You will capture characters, and kill them just like this." he explained. "It's more humane than simply shooting them, plus it's easier to clean up."

The organization's leader left the room, leaving his men to take care of Ikuto's corpse.

The innocent catboy had become the first victim of what was to be many. A horrible nightmare had just started...


	6. Itachi Escapes

"Wh-what's a genjutsu?" Len stuttered, probably more scared of Itachi now than he had been before. He knew they never should've let such a dangerous ninja into their house.

However Len's question was ignored at first as Grace continued to freak out over her friend. "ZOMG I hope he didn't stab you like he did to Kakashi that one time when he trapped him in a genjutsu! That seems painful..."

"Uhh... isn't it like, where the user makes the target think they're in a whole different world, or something?" Alyssa, the otaku with a very limited knowledge of Naruto, guessed.

"Illusionary Techniques." Gaara answered. "It manipulates the target's five senses, creating the illusion of a completely different world around them. And although it doesn't physically harm the target, it can create pain that feels very real, because it leads the body to believe it is in pain." Gaara explained like nothing just happened. "Although Itachi can control time in a genjutsu, making a few seconds feel like many hours..."

"OH YEAH THAT'S RIGHT!" Grace screeched, having temporarily forgotten that detail in the stress of the moment. "That mean weasel could've had you trapped like that for days or something! What'd he do!"

"Calm down Grace..." Taylor replied, getting to her feet. "I-I'm ok. It only lasted a minute or so, really." she told her friend a bit shakily. "And he didn't hurt me, just, questioned me..."

"What'd he say?" Grace persisted.

"He said he wanted to test how much he knew me and then asked how many people he'd killed..." Taylor answered. "And I said that besides his clan he really hadn't directly killed very many people, that was all his organization or Kisame..." she explained. "As for why he ran off, I, I dunno..."

"Well don't worry! We'll go hunt him down and then make him pay for being such a jerk to you!" Grace exclaimed.

Gaara looked like he wanted to facepalm. "You do know how powerful Itachi is, right?"

Grace looked back at him cluelessly, clearly not getting what he was trying to say. "Yeah so what?"

That time Gaara did facepalm.

"Surprizingly I'm actually with Grace on this one..." Len spoke up. "I don't know him as well as the rest of you might, but I've gathered that he's a very dangerous ninja..." he explained as calmly as he could, whilst his inner self was busy having a panic attack over what that sharingan-weilding beast from another world was out doing who-knows-what. "So maybe it is a good idea if we try hunting him down or something..." he suggested, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Aw you're just worried he'll do something bad, aren't ya Lennie-boy?" Grace spoke up. "Well don't worry your pretty blonde head about it, cuz as long as we have the Kazekage here, nothing can hurt us! Right Gaara?"

Gaara sighed. "Actually I'd rather not get into a fight with an Akatsuki member..." he replied.

"Aww you're no fun Gaara..." Grace pouted.

"Gah! But you have to!" Len protested. "You're the only one who would even stand a chance against him. And if you don't fight him, who knows what he might do!"

"Len I think you are overreacting..." the frizzy-haired otaku who had been mainly quiet up until then spoke up. "I hardly know Itachi, and even I know that." Though mainly she had only said that as an excuse to be lazy. She didn't feel like hunting down some ninja. After all, ninjas tend to be hard to find.

"Alyssa's right, for once." Taylor added. "Itachi's not as eager to kill people as the other Akatsuki members." she explained. "I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, Len."

"Wait, so... if we're not going out and looking for him, then what are we supposed to do about him?" Alyssa asked, not sure if they were just gonna let some ninja run loose or what.

"Itachi's smart, and he knows he won't be able to get any food in this world on his own." Taylor informed them. "So he'll probably come back when he's hungry. Kinda like a cat... or a weasel..." she explained, grinning.

"Alrighty then!" Grace chirped. "So I guess we just wait for him to come back and then give him a stern talking-to about how you can't just send anyone you want into a genjutsu in this world!"

"Hm... I guess that solves that predicament... I mean if all we have to do is wait." Alyssa commented. "And that means we still have plenty of time to mess with our charas by getting back online and showing them all sorts of _pairings..._" she suggested, a devious smile plastered on her face, eyes locked on Len. "Ya know, Vocaloid pairings really know no bounds... they've paired you up with just about all the other vocaloids before..."

Len blinked, not entirely sure what Alyssa planned on showing him via the messed-up Internet this world posessed. Likely some very disturbing images...

"Wait a second Alyssa, for all we know, Itachi might not be back again until nightfall," Taylor pointed out. "How long do you plan on staying here?"

"Mya my parents won't mind a hyper otaku being missing from the house for a while..." Alyssa answered. "They're fine with wherever I am as long as I'm not starving somewhere and/or I'm not getting myself killed." she explained. "At any rate, where's the rest of _your _family?"

"They're on vacation." Taylor answered. "Won't be home for another month."

"Awwww and they left you here all alone?" Grace asked.

"Well, I really didn't wanna go, so yeah." Taylor replied, shrugging.

"OMG wait a second..." Grace contemplated. "Your parents are on vacation... and mine are on a buisness trip... and Alyssa's really don't care..." she let out a very excited gasp before sharing her realization. "I AM GONNA SLEEP OVER HERE EVERY NIGHT! AND SO SHOULD ALYSSA AND GAARA AND LEN AND ITACHI WHEN HE COMES BACK! YAY SLEEPOVERS~!" Grace ranted.

Taylor sighed. "Fine, but you're not sleeping on the same floor as Gaara."

* * *

><p><em>I have to go back and finish everything... <em>Itachi thought to himself, looking at the city around him from his perch on a rooftop. _There's no way I can stay here... how do I get back? _he questioned. The last thing he saw before he entered this world was a bright flash of light. Purple light, to be exact. And that wasn't much of a lead. Gaara and Len were probably transported there the same way, or at least he had assumed. He hadn't done anything to cause him to be sent here, it had been completely random, so he had no idea how he was supposed to get home, if even possible. And he _had _to return home. There was no way he could just leave all his plans unfinished.

His thoughts were distracted however, as he felt the hunger of having not eaten in nearly a day returning to him. He should've gotten some food from Taylor before just storming out like he did. He had no idea how he was supposed to get anything to eat in this world. In fact, he had to be careful about who even _saw_ him, as there were likely more people in this world like Taylor and Grace that knew him, and he would hate to wind up with _another _band of otakus.

_I'll just wait till nightfall. _he told himself. _Then I can sneak back into Taylor's house and steal some food for myself. Everyone'll be asleep by then. _he contemplated. _Except maybe Gaara... _he thought. _Until then, where am I supposed to stay...? _He needed to find a place to hide himself from all potential fangirls if he wanted to save himself a great deal of trouble, and perhaps on top of someone's house wasn't the best place to be hiding. If he got away from civilization then he'd be escaping the otakus with them. So he decided it'd be a good idea to hide in the nearest patch of wilderness he could find until he could assume Taylor and the others were asleep. Until then, he would just have to suffer through his hunger.

And so the ninja began hopping from rooftop to rooftop, trying to find some sort of shelter as quickly as possible without being seen. Unfortunately for him, though, someone had already spotted him, but they weren't otakus...

* * *

><p>"Hmmm..." Taylor hummed, thinking of how to work out sleeping arrangements for the four extra people in her house. "Let's see... I'm probably the one in the most danger if Itachi comes back," she thought out loud, remembering how Len had been so concerned about it. "So I should probably sleep in the room closest to Gaara for protection."<p>

Grace gasped. "Not fair! You know I like him more than I do so how come you get to sleep near him!" she protested.

Gaara sighed. _Hopefully I won't meet anyone more hyper than her in this world, _he thought. _otherwise I don't think I'll survive here... _

"Cuz I need the protection and I don't think Gaara wants to be raped in his sleep, that's why." Taylor answered bluntly. "You can take my room, Grace."

"Aww fine..." Grace replied. "Wait then where are you sleeping?" she asked.

"I'll sleep in the basement, the windows are practically un-enterable." she explained, even though 'un-enterable' probably wasn't a word.

"Oh my god... I have an idea..." Alyssa stated. "How about all of us otakus sleep in the basement where there's a Wii with Netflix that has anime and then we all get high off of pocky and then watch all sorts of epic animes like Naruto and Hetalia and Death Note and Black Butler-"

"**NO.**" Taylor cut her off harshly. "I am _never _watching Black Butler with you when you're all hyper and sugar-high _ever again._"

"... ... Aw." Alyssa replied quietly. "That was fun, though..."

"You can sleep in my sister's room." Taylor told her. "She's not home either, so... yeah."

"Meh fine..." the frizzy-haired otaku mumbled.

"So, um, where do us characters sleep?" Len asked.

"Um... Len, I guess you can take my parents' room. And Gaara, you sleep in the living room." Taylor answered.

Gaara just nodded.

"Oh, uh, ok..." Len replied unsurely. Sappy as it may sound, he really wasn't used to sleeping alone. He always had his sister, Rin, by his side. He began to feel guilt tugging at him when he wondered what she and the other vocaloids were doing back in his own world. Surely they'd noticed by then that he was missing. He'd been gone since this morning. They were probably worried about him. Especially Rin. She'd be _real _worried. And Len didn't have the slightest idea how to get home. In fact, for all he knew, it might even be impossible. What if he was stuck in this world for so long that the other vocaloids eventually gave up their search for him, and assumed he was dead or something? The whole concept of it made him feel awful... would he ever see them again?

"Len? You look worried about something... you ok?" Alyssa spoke up, dragging the blonde out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine..." Len replied, trying to put his worries aside for the time being. "Taylor said I'm sleeping in her parents' room, right?" he asked to clarify, since it seemed everyone else had begun to settle in for the night. It _was _getting late, after all.

"Yeah." Alyssa answered, before yawning. "You sure you don't mind sleeping by yourself?" she asked, knowing Len better than Taylor or Grace, probably. Plus they were the only two left in the room so it's not like she was at any risk of embarassing him. "Taylor probably wouldn't let me sleep in the same room as you but you can probably sleep in the living room with Gaara or something if you'd like..."

"No, I'm fine..." Len told her. Though sleeping somewhere near Gaara was probably a good idea, considering everyone was nearly positive that Itachi would return at some point, likely that night.

"Well, if you say so..." Alyssa said back, heading towards the stairs to her room. "Goodnight, Len-chan..." she called back tiredly.

Len bit his lip. 'Len-chan' was what Rin always called him. "G-goodnight..." he said back.

* * *

><p>"Hn, pathetic." Itachi grunted, looking around at the small troop of agents that lay either unconcious or dead scattered around him. It seemed like they'd been trying to capture him for whatever reason, but in an unfamiliar world, that could prove to be even more dangerous than if some group of people was trying to capture him back home. That is, if they succeeded. Itachi found these fighters to be terribly weak, no threat whatsoever.<p>

He looked up at the now dark night sky, a few stars were even becoming visible, though not as many as he would've seen in his own world considering all the light the city gave off. _It'll be safe to head back soon... _he thought, his hunger growing.

Out of curiosity, though, he leaned over one of the grunt's bodies, trying to get a good look at the uniform he wore. He wanted to know what these men's buisness was. He didn't expect them to be able to take them down, not easily at least, he just wanted to know why they even attempted it. Looking over the mostly black outfit, the Uchiha could make out two words clearly printed in a somewhat small gray text.

"'Operation Anime'...?"

* * *

><p>AN- Alyssa's explanation of a genjutsu was all I could think of to describe it when I started writing this chapter, seeing as how Alyssa is basically me. Gaara's explanation was what I could come up with after visiting Wikipedia and consulting with the real-life Grace. XP

Also... for those of you wondering why Taylor is so against watching Black Butler with Alyssa, (aka Kuroshitsuji, for those of you who only know it by the Japanese title) this is because we did this once at a birthday party of Taylor's once... while high on pocky and other Japanese snacks... while me and a friend of ours (who is not in this fic) had a MEGA fangirl scream-fest over Sebastian... heh...

Oh, and does anyone else picture Itachi speaking Engrish when he reads 'Operation Anime'? Seems like that kind of moment to me...

On a final note, sorry this was sort of a filler chapter. I planned to end this with Itachi returning to Taylor's, originally, but the chapter got longer than expected and I decided to wait till next time. Although, now, looking at the line-up for chapter 7... It will be full of epic, I promise.


	7. Ramen Noodles, Pocky and Yaoi

Itachi crept outside Taylor's house. It was late enough already, past midnight, so he'd hoped that everyone would already be asleep. He peered into the window, knowing he had to put his ninja stealth to good use if he wanted to get in and out without anyone knowing. He wondered if he should tell Taylor and the others about those Operation Anime people, but... no, it would make things easier for him if he just got in, got food, and got out without the whole group knowing, so that wouldn't be a good idea. The otakus would probably learn about them eventually, even if that meant those weirdos would get to the defenseless blonde first...

He quietly cut the window screen and opened the window, essentially getting in without making a sound. _Ok... so here's the computer room... _he thought as he climbed in through the window. Itachi wandered a bit, keeping an eye out for any otakus or vocaloids or the like. He silently crept down the stairs to the basement, hoping he could find Taylor or really anyone he could convince to get him food without telling the others about his arrival. He figured really anyone but Gaara would work, if all went well.

Luckily, he managed to spot exactly the girl he was hoping to find lying on a futon, and even more to his luck, still awake.

Without being seen, he quickly stalked over to her and clamped his hand over her mouth. "You will stay silent and do what I say." he hissed in her ear.

Taylor spun around, somewhat startled, to see the Uchiha looking back down at her in the dim lighting. The otaku calmed down when she realized it was just Itachi, whom she had predicted would appear at some point, and nodded at what he had just said.

"Good girl." Itachi commented, removing his hand.

"I was right!" Taylor exclaimed once she could speak again.

"Be quiet." Itachi snarled, glaring down at her. "I need you to-"

"To get you food?" Taylor guessed, grinning like a cat.

Itachi nodded hesitantly. He had forgotten that this girl knew so much about his character, that she could likely predict what a lot of his actions would be.

"Ok! Well then follow me!" Taylor told him, being careful to keep her voice no louder than a whisper. Itachi followed closely behind her as she crept silently up the stairs. _I was right!_ Taylor cheered silently. _I KNEW Itachi would come back when he was hungry! I knew it!_ By the time they had both made it to the kitchen, she was nearly positive they hadn't been loud enough as to wake anyone up, not even Gaara, and that was a good thing. "Fancy anything specific?" she asked quietly.

Itachi just shook his head.

"Well then, there's some leftover ramen in the fridge," she told him. "I guess you can have that." _Even though there's hardly any left thanks to Grace..._ she mumbled silently, putting what little leftover ramen she had into a bowl and throwing it into the microwave. "And by the way, Itachi, how did you get into my house?" Taylor asked.

"Hn." Itachi grunted, glancing towards the computer room.

Taylor looked back at him skeptically for a moment, before heading in that direction to see for herself. She gasped slightly when she saw the screen that Itachi had so kindly destroyed, before turning back around and glaring at the Uchiha. "You broke the window..." she hissed.

Itachi ignored her.

"JERK!" she yelled, quite a bit louder than one should be when sneaking around in the middle of the night.

Itachi lunged at the girl, not wanting her to cause him any trouble. He held a kunai to her throat, just to make sure she got that message.

"Taylor? Are you alright?" A calm-sounding voice asked from the living room. It was Gaara. Being their only ninja protector during the night it was a good thing he was a light sleeper.

"Call him off." Itachi hissed.

"Y-yeah Gaara! I'm fine!" Taylor called back shakily. "Uh, the cat was trying to eat my food!" she lied.

"Good girl." Itachi growled, releasing her and taking the bowl of ramen for himself, headed back towards the computer room. "I plan to be back tomorrow, as well." he informed her. "Oh, and don't tell anyone I was here." he added, starting to climb back out through the window in which he came. "Obey or you'll die."

Taylor then fell to the ground slowly, panting. She feared Itachi, for some reason. But why? She stood up again, though a bit shakily, trying to collect herself. She gave the situation a moment's thought, then called out to the other room a bit shakily, "Gaara! I think someone broke in!"

"What?" Gaara called back from the livingroom, getting off the couch he had been sleeping on. _How did I not notice an intruder? _he thought a bit worriedly. _Maybe it's the Akatsuki member... _He quickly made his way into the kitchen, where he saw Taylor, looking a bit shaky. "Are you alright? What happened?" he asked. "And on another note... why are you awake this time of night?"

"I'm fine," Taylor replied. "And I was only in here getting some food." she told him, technically not lying. "Anyway, while I was up, I noticed the door to the computer room open," she started explaining, walking inside said room and turning on the lights. "And... look, someone broke the screen and got in." she finished, pointing to the window.

"Do you think it was Itachi?" Gaara asked.

"No, I don't think so..." she lied, hoping she could fool the Kazekage. "But whoever it was, it doesn't look like they stole anything... that confuzzles me... Meh, I'll have to buy a new screen at any rate..." she mumbled.

* * *

><p>"Ehehehehehe... silly Taylor!" Grace whispered excitedly to herself. She had been sleeping in Taylor's room, and... found where Taylor keeps her pocky... "She's a meany butt, keeping all this pocky stashed away and not sharing with the rest of us otakus!"<p>

Seeing as how Taylor had let Grace sleep in her room, of course Grace found the pocky before long, and was only going to eat a few sticks of it, but... pocky is addictive...

And so, there was a sugar-high otaku in Taylor's room, wide-awake in the middle of the night.

_I'm bored... Maybe I'll go bother Gaara... _she thought to herself. Grace didn't expect anyone else to be awake, so she figured Taylor wouldn't have to know.

The otaku quietly tiptoed down the stairs, but somewhat to her surprize, she already heard voices. _Damn Taylor I was gonna spend time with Gaara! _she thought angrily. _First the pocky and now this! _Out of curiosity, she hurried down the stairs and followed the sound of voices into the computer room. But when she got there, she saw Taylor and Gaara staring at a window and wondering what was going on. "Uh... whatcha guys up to?" she asked.

"Huh?" Taylor asked, turning around to see Grace standing there. _And she's up because...? _she questioned before deciding that Grace was just being Grace and it was better to not ask. "Oh, someone broke in..." she explained. "But I don't think it was Itachi..."

"Oh..." Grace replied. _At least she's not hanging out with Gaara just cuz she wants to... _

"Hmmm..." Taylor hummed. "Hey, since we're all here, and none of us feel like sleeping... should we show Gaara who his fans pair him up with?" she suggested, a devious smile on her face.

"Ooh ooh let's!" Grace chirped hyperly, bouncing where she stood. "Just don't show him any incest, though, that's disgusting..." she commented as Taylor booted up the computer.

Taylor gagged. "Oh please, GaaKan and GaaTen is sick... Temari is _so _Shikamaru's..." she retorted. "Let's show him some GaaLee..."

"GaaLee...?" the eyebrow-less ninja asked hesitantly.

"You'll see!" Grace chirped.

* * *

><p><em>That girl's not so bad... <em>Itachi thought, finishing off the ramen he'd gotten from her. Maybe he'd overreacted before... He should probably tell the others about those Operation Anime people, maybe he would in the morning.

Except... he was too cautious to sleep. OA could show up again. Or another group of rabid fangirls. He sighed. What to do now...

The Uchiha had been resting on a rooftop, concealed by the shadows. From his perch, he had a decent view of the surrounding neighborhood, he could even see Taylor's house from where he was... as well as the black van headed for it. He sat there, debating whether or not it would be a good idea to interphere.

* * *

><p>Gaara stared at the computer screen, eyes full of horror. "Why would someone even think of that, let alone draw it?" he asked. <em>This world really is disgusting if people would even think for a moment that I would ever like Lee like that...<em>

"Oh Gaara, that's just fluff... there are way worse pictures out there that would leave you scared for life!" Taylor exclaimed. "It's just how a fangirl's mind works."

"And there's also pictures of you with Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, Hinata and many other characters!" Grace ranted, bouncing hyperly.

Gaara shuddered.

"Hey Taylor, should we wake Alyssa up? She likes yaoi... she's missing out."

"Nah... she doesn't know Naruto well enough, so she probably doesn't care. Just let her sleep."

* * *

><p>"So... you're <em>sure <em>this is the house where they're harboring the characters?" one OA grunt asked his partner.

"I saw that one ninja get in and out of this place, so yes." the other replied.

So far, the organization was more one full of spies than those for capturing characters. Their only successful capture thus far had been Ikuto, but their goal was to eliminate all that were known to exist in this world, so they were starting with the ones whose location was already known. And they knew that a handful of otakus and characters had formed a small group, which their boss was worried would grow into a huge problem if they didn't dissolve their little team early on.

"I saw lights on... maybe we shouldn't attack." the more hesitant one spoke up.

"If we back down now, the Boss'll kill us." the other pointed out. "If it makes you feel any better, we only have to take one character tonight, the weak-looking one. Come back for the ninjas when we have more people..."

"And the otakus?"

"Just leave them be. They're no threat without the characters."

The first coughed. "So... which room is the blonde sleeping in?"

"That one." the other answered, pointing to Taylor's parents' room. "The light's are on downstairs, so if we capture him in his sleep and get out fast, hopefully we can get out without a struggle."

"Hopefully..."

* * *

><p>AN- Chapter 7 done! Yes yes I had originally planned for OA to attack Taylor's in this chappy... but chapter 6 got longer than expected and I had to postpone Itachi's return... and then because of that this one got too long so I had to move something else over! ^^' At least you got a glimpse~

Oh, and I noticed that in the thread this is based off of, there was a link to what Taylor and Grace showed Gaara...

(No spaces): http:/browse .deviantart .com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=GaaLee#/du6m0p


	8. Midnight Visitors

It was very late at night, or rather, very early in the morning, and Gaara plus the two otakus were not the only ones awake.

Poor Len had been keeping himself awake, worrying about what was going on back in his own world at the time. He just couldn't get his mind off of it. Although, if anyone had been sucked into another world with no way of contacting their own, or any idea how to get back, then of course they'd be worried. Len had been gone from home for almost 24 hours at this point, so of course the other vocaloids had known by now that he'd gone missing. Len just wished he could talk to them somehow.

_I bet Rin's not sleeping well either... _Len thought, sighing. _She worries about me too much... _

The young blonde rolled over in bed, not confident he'd be falling asleep anytime soon. He almost wished he at least had something to do, but he could faintly hear fangirl squeals from the floor below, so he figured it was best not to leave his room.

Just as he was about to get up and turn the lights on, however, Len began to hear suspicious sounds coming from outside. He figured it was only the wind, but that was before he started hearing unfamiliar voices, as well. Two different people, at least.

Len kept completely still and tuned his hearing to the barely-audible voices. He hardly caught every other word, but from what he could hear, these men didn't seem to be friends of any sort.

"The boss... ...otakus... ...characters... ...capture..."

_Please tell me I fell asleep at some point and I'm dreaming now... _Len thought fearfully, nearly positive these creepers were talking about himself and the others. As the voices grew louder and clearer, the young vocaloid could feel his fear growing inside him.

"Just get the blonde and leave... they might have more dangerous characters..."

_What do they want _me_ for? _Len thought terrified. He could hear them just outside his window, he knew he should call for Gaara or at least get out of bed and do _something_, but Len was frozen in fear and didn't have the slightest clue what move to make.

He almost couldn't hear the two of them breaking in over the sound of his own heart racing. But before he knew it, another one of Taylor's window screens was broken and those creeps were in the same room as Len.

"Think we can actually get him out of here without waking him up?" one asked.

"Probably not." the other answered. "Let's cuff him and work from there. From the sounds of things, the otakus seem to be busy."

Len was shaking, and he wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that the intruders hadn't noticed. He'd been pretending to be asleep from the start, but, with his curiosity taking over, he slowly turned around to glance back at the men with fear-filled eyes. He couldn't see them well in the darkness, but it was definitely obvious at that point that they were something to be feared.

"Hey, he's awake!" one of them exclaimed, instinctively reaching for his gun.

"G-GAARAAAA!" Len shrieked, a miracle he could even remember the ninja's name when running on raw fear alone.

Slightly panicked himself, the OA grunt swung his handgun around so it was pointed directly at Len. "Quiet, character." he threatened. "If you're really in such a hurry to die, we could always do that here."

Terrified beyond his wits, Len immediately silenced himself, allowing the other agent to cuff him behind his back, leaving him even more defenseless.

Really, the OA member didn't plan on shooting Len, as it would probably be best to take him back to base first, but this sort of thing worked great for intimidation. After all, they really didn't know what other characters the otakus had. They'd seen Itachi enter and leave the house, but they'd only caught glimpses of the others. There were some good odds that the girls had some characters that were invincible, immortal, or just plain kickass.

* * *

><p>Gaara and the two otakus froze, spinning towards the source of the sound in a burst of panic.<p>

"That was Len!" Taylor exclaimed, worried about what the trouble could possibly be. Was it Itachi again? Something worse?

Gaara had already dashed out of the room and up the stairs, worried about how Len had suddenly stopped screaming.

"We're coming Len!" Grace called, the two otakus following after.

Once arriving at the room Len was in, Taylor lunged at the door handle, only to find it... locked. Ironically, Len was the one who locked it because he was paranoid Itachi might come for him or something. "Len! What's going on in there!" Taylor called, pounding on the door.

"Shit, now look!" one of the OA grunts cursed, noting the sound of Taylor attempting to get in.

Both agents drew their guns, aiming at the door, ready to shoot if they somehow got in. "Stay back!" one threatened. "We're armed!"

_They'd shoot one of the girls? _Len thought terrified, frozen in fear, unable to move or speak. All he could do was watch, and hope nothing bad happened.

It wasn't long before Gaara's sand unlocked the door, and the three of them charged in. The two otakus gasped, shocked at the sight of the two men, one of which still had his gun pointed at the defenseless vocaloid. "L-Len!" Grace stammered.

Gaara's sand quickly covered the two agents, forcing them to drop their weapons.

"SAND?" the two agents screamed as the tiny granules of rock began surrounding them. They were completely defenseless, no chance of breaking the sand's hold no matter how hard they struggled. "Fuck, now what?" one asked his partner.

Taylor glared daggers at the two men, then walked up and retrieved the guns they'd dropped, before looking sympathetically towards Len, who was still looking on wide-eyed and drenched in sweat. _Poor Len, he's kinda scarred for life now... _Taylor thought.

Some of Gaara's sand quickly went into Len's handcuffs and undid the lock, freeing him. (Gaara's awfully convenient for picking locks...) Len gave a sigh of relief as all the danger and excitement began to fade.

"Grace, take Len downstairs and get him a banana or something and anything else he wants." Taylor told her.

"Will do!" Grace chirped, grabbing Len by the wrist and dragging him out of the room.

* * *

><p>"People need to shut up..." an irritated otaku mumbled to herself in bed, one who'd been trying to get back to sleep ever since the commotion a few rooms down woke her up. "Am I the only one who's actually trying to sleep?"<p>

* * *

><p>"P-please don't hurt us..." one of the men begged. At this point, they were at the mercy of the otakus, and since one of the characters could control sand, and they had already pictured a few gruesome ways they could be killed, they weren't completely confident that they'd get out of this situation with their lives. "We never hurt blondie, did we? He's fine!"<p>

"Well no... you didn't hurt him... but you did leave him sorta scarred for life, didn't you?" Taylor replied wittily. "Now... what exactly did you plan to do with Len? What's your business?" she asked seriously, crossing her arms.

The two invaders glanced nervously between each other, not a clue what their next move would be. Could they really tell this team of characters and fangirls about Operation Anime? That would prove to have been a very bad move down the line... Although, since the alternative seemed to be death, it didn't look like they had much of a choice...

"Now!" Taylor urged, glaring daggers at them. "Or I'll have Gaara sand coffin you!"

"S-sand coffin?" one stuttered.

As if to demonstrate, Gaara increased his grip with his sand, beginning to suffocate them.

"Gyah...! Alright! We'll talk...!" one barely managed to say.

"But please! Get this sand off of us...!"

Taylor narrowed her eyes. "Alright then. Talk."

* * *

><p>"Don't worry Len! Those bad guys won't hurt you anymore!" Grace chirped, getting Len a banana from the fridge. "Wanna look at road rollers on the computer or something?" the non-Vocaloid-expert asked, really not knowing what else Len would want to do.<p>

Len was more or less paying attention to what Grace was saying. His mind was still stuck in the other room, with all the fear it had struck into him. "I almost just died... I'm lucky to be alive right now..." Len whispered mostly to himself. He was still somewhat in shock from that last experience, and definitely still shaky. "What did they want with me...?"

Grace glanced back at Len with a look that said 'are you even listening to me?', then considered the situation for a second, and, since Len really wasn't paying any attention to her, glomped him without warning.

"GAH! What are you doing!" Len exclaimed, since Grace had startled him so badly he nearly had a heart attack.

"Cheer uuuuuuup!" Grace whined, pinching Len's cheeks into a smile. "I don't like when people are depressed!"

"I'm not depressed, though!" Len shot back. "I'm _traumatized_! Two men just broke into the house while I was sleeping and tried to kidnap me, threatening to kill me if I didn't cooperate. What if that happened to you?"

For a moment, there was silence. Grace really couldn't combat what Len had said, it was true that he had all the right in the world to still be so in shock, after he'd been so scared, so close to death. At this point, she wasn't going to try forcing him to by happy, she just wanted to comfort him.

Before she could give him a warm hug or some kind words or something, though, Grace was distracted by someone knocking at Taylor's door. "I'll get it~" she chimed, handing Len the banana that she'd gone to the kitchen to get for him in the first place, and strode off towards the front door.

Of course, it never really occurred to her that it was about 3 AM at the time, and most people are home in bed asleep at this time, or at least not knocking on people's doors. Nonetheless, Grace swung open the door, thinking nothing of it, until she saw who was there, when her eyes widened and she let out a small gasp. She should've seen it coming, but she didn't.

Grace gulped and said to the visitor nervously, "Um... hi Itachi! How can I help you?"

* * *

><p>AN- FINALLY DONE GODAMMIT!

I am sooooo sorry this took so long... I've been to busy... please forgive me my loyal fans! Also, yes, this chapter is a bit on the short side, I had originally planned for it to be like twice this length, but since I didn't wanna make everyone wait that much longer, I just cut it in the middle at a double-cliffhanger cuz I'm evil like that...

Thanks for reading! Reviews appreciated! ^^'


	9. The Dark Truth Revealed

The OA grunt sighed, left with no choice but to explain their organization to the group that held them hostage. Ironically, the very group that they'd been sent to eliminate before they grew into a threat... Taylor still glaring at them with hostility, one sighed and began his explanation.

"You're probably already aware of this, but as of recently, fictional characters have been popping up in the real world as if by magic."

"Anime, specifically." the other added.

Taylor nodded, although really the thought of other anime characters in existence besides the ones they'd found hadn't really crossed her mind. It worried her a little... Just how many characters were already _in_ their world? "Continue..." she told them calmly.

"And can you imagine what would happen if we just left them be? A lot of them have superhuman powers,"

"And unreal weapons,"

"Think of the danger!"

"The chaos!"

Taylor again nodded, taking in what they said. That much is true, it probably would cause a lot of chaos. Especially with characters from darker animes like Soul Eater, Higurashi, Death Note or Kuroshitsuji... Gaara knew it, too, knowing some of the characters from his own universe.

"So," he continued. "We are part of an organization that takes care of the situation in a way that's fast, easy and organized."

Taylor raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"Simple," one answered. "One by one, we go out and find the characters, capture them, bring them back to headquarters... and eliminate them."

* * *

><p>"Where is Taylor." Itachi asked bluntly.<p>

"Um, now really isn't a good time." Grace answered. "We're kinda in the middle of an interrogation, you see, plus you might just scare Len more and we wouldn't want that after what happened to the poor blondey!"

Itachi pushed past Grace, completely ignoring her, and continued further into the house, Len cowering slightly in the kitchen.

"She's busy! Don't ignore me!" Grace whined angrily, picking up an empty pocky box from earlier and throwing it at Itachi. "Len almost got kidnapped and now she's interrogating the men who did it upstairs with Gaara! Now go away and come back later you annoying little weasel! I swear you and your duck-butt-headed brother are so darn stubborn it's so annoying!"

The empty cardboard box wasn't even thrown far enough to reach Itachi, and instead just landed on the floor a foot away from him. The Uchiha turned around and glared at the otaku dangerously, stepping towards her. "I would watch it if I were you, girl." he seethed.

"Ok, first of all, I have a name, it's Grace. Second, when I'm high on Japanese snacks, you don't scare me!" Grace retorted. "And I know almost as much about you as Taylor does, so I know you're really a good guy who just needs a hug. But I'm not going to hug you, because you remind me too much of my neighbor who I hugged once who then threw me in a pool..."

Len watched with some interest from the other room. Watching those two go at each other was strangely entertaining and helped to ease his mind... as long as he stayed out of it.

* * *

><p>Taylor's breath caught in her throat. "You... you what?" she asked, astonished.<p>

"You mean to tell me... you kill them all?" Gaara asked, also sounding quite surprised. "So then... have you 'eliminated' anyone yet?"

"More are probably being killed as we speak... or captured, at the very least." one of the OA grunts answered. "But when we set out on this mission, there was only one character confirmed to be killed.

"I doubt you'd know him, though." the other added, turning to Gaara. "I don't think the catboy was from your anime."

"Wait," Taylor interrupted. "Catboy...?" she echoed, a look of panic crossing her face.

"Yeah, a catboy, from some anime about... what was it again?"

"Eggs or something... just some weird anime..."

_An anime about eggs... Shugo Chara?_ Taylor thought, the panic worsening. _Catboy... oh please God no..._ "WHO?" she raged, lunging at one of them.

"Argh! Get off of me!" the agent snarled, shoving Taylor off of him and landing heron the floor. "You want to know so badly? Fine." he told her. "The character we killed, if I recall correctly, his name was... Ikuto Tsukiyomi."

* * *

><p>Itachi turned his head towards the sound of screams coming from upstairs. <em>What's going on up there?<em> he wondered.

Grace heard it too and looked towards the same direction as Itachi had. "Uh-oh that can't be good..." she commented. She wanted to got see what was going on for herself, but... she glanced at Itachi, then at Len, then at the stairs again. Curiosity overwhelmed her.

The otaku turned back to Itachi, pointed to him and said, "Stay, do not move from that spot." before racing up the stairs to see what the problem was.

* * *

><p>"You... did what?" Taylor asked again, in a sad, heartbroken tone.<p>

"Tch, you're overreacting." the man spat. "The characters we're hunting aren't even real, you know. Just fiction."

Just then, a second otaku came running into the room. "What happened in here?" she asked suddenly, before taking note of her friend on the floor. "Huh? Why is Taylor crying?" she asked, sounding concerned.

"They... they killed... Ikuto..." Taylor gasped, barely holding back tears.

"WAIT WHAT?" Grace shrieked upon hearing the news. "BUT HIM AND AMU WERE LIKE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER! NOW TADASE'S GONNA GET HER!" she ranted at the top of her lungs. "AND YOU CAN'T JUST KILL PEOPLE JUST CUZ THEY'RE FROM AN ANIME THEY'RE LIVING BEINGS!" as proof, she quickly ran over to Gaara and grabbed his wrist. Two seconds later, "SEE HE HAS A PULSE THAT MEANS HE'S ALIVE! KILLING IS BAD!" at the end of her rant, all her energy suddenly left her and she nearly collapsed into Gaara's arms. "I think I had a sugar crash..." she told the sand ninja quietly.

The two men were a bit stunned by Grace's enthusiasm, but were distracted as yet another character entered the room. "Oi, weren't there troops sent after you, too?"

Gaara blinked. "Itachi? When did you get here?" he asked.

"Oh yeah I forgot to tell you he showed up..." Grace mumbled. "And I told you to stay damn you!"

"Itachi...?" Taylor echoed, turning around and seeing the Uchiha standing behind her. "Why are you here?" she asked, beginning to recollect herself.

"I came to warn you about Operation Anime, but I can see you already found out about them..." he explained, glancing at the two men.

"Awwuh does that mean the weasel actually cares about us?" Grace teased.

"Hn." Itachi grunted, glaring at her again.

"Well, if all the OA members are as weak as these two, then we shouldn't have much of a problem. The issue at hand is what to do with them." Gaara spoke up. "And before you ask Taylor we are not killing them." he added, glancing at the heartbroken fangirl.

"Y-you're right..." Taylor agreed, getting up from her position on the floor. "The person in charge of this needs to die... a slow, and painful death..." she continued, shaking violently. "Itachi, Gaara, you two can decide what to do with these grunts..." she told them.

"Wait what?" one of the men asked.

Before any of them could do or say anything else, though, another voice interrupted them, this time a high-pitched and digital one.

"E-eto..." Len spoke up, poking his head into the room shyly. "I was curious... and lonely... so I followed Itachi upstairs not long after him, and... what's this about anime characters being killed...?" he asked fearfully.

"Don't worry Len... we plan on ending this as soon as possible, we won't let any of them hurt you." Taylor reassured him.

"That's not what I worried about though..." Len replied, biting his lip. Between the stress, fear and worry, tears began welling up in his eyes.

"What is it?" Grace asked, sounding concerned.

Sniveling, Len turned to the two men. "You haven't killed anyone else other than this Ikuto guy, right?" he asked, panicked. "So that means... my sister is still alive, right?"

"Hmph, who knows?" one answered. "Like I said, we have more troops out there right now, bringing in more characters to be killed... she could be dying as we speak."

Taylor spoke up before Len had a chance to freak out. "Relax, we'll fix this whole mess before Rin even has a chance of coming here, alright?"

Len nodded, putting his faith in these girls. It was the only peace of mind he had.

After that, the room began to clear out. Gaara led the two grunts out of the house, Grace decided that, since she was having a sugar crash, it would be best for her to just go back to bed, which left Gaara very relieved. And Len was starting to calm down, too.

Taylor sighed. _I wonder just how many charaters are already in this world though..._ she thought to herself. _I guess this means we should start looking out for any other anime characters that appear... I really hope Sasuke doesn't show up, my house has already been damaged enough..._ she thought pessimistically. _And then, we'll have to figure out a way to attack OA directly somehow..._ "Urgh..." she moaned, everything happening so fast having given her a headache.

* * *

><p><em>Rawr... just barely missed Kendra...<em> the half-asleep otaku commented to herself as the light from her DS screens reflected off her face in the dark. Alyssa, whenever she can't get to sleep but is still too tired to get up, typically checks her email and forums on her DS browser... but since none of her roleplays were active and her friend Kendra had _just_ gotten offline, she was left with nothing to do.

Listening to all the commotion from the other room, however, she had just about built up enough curiosity to get up off her lazy ass and see what was going on.

The fangirl stumbled out of bed and wandered over to the door in the dark, still only half-awake. "Raaaaaaaaawr why is everyone awake...?" she groaned upon opening the door. Though, she wasn't entirely expecting to see Gaara leading two unfamiliar men in dark uniforms down the stairs and past her room. Nor could she entirely comprehend it while her brain was still clouded with melatonin. "People..." she stated, pointing at them as they walked by. It was the only acknowledgement she made.

"OMG Alyssa you missed it!" Grace exclaimed, suddenly having noticed Alyssa on her way back to her room. (Aaaaand magically regaining her energy...) "One minute we were in the computer room looking at yaoi and the next there were evil people upstairs trying to kidnap Len! It was insane!" she ranted.

Alyssa was too tired to comprehend a single word that Grace just said. "Eh...?"

"I thought you were tired and headed back to sleep..." Gaara commented from downstairs.

"But then Alyssa woke up and now I have to tell her all about what happened!" she answered back.

"Oh, Alyssa, you're awake..." Taylor commented.

"Yeah..." Alyssa replied, only beginning to wake up. "What was that about Len being kidnapped...?"

"He's fine, don't worry." Taylor assured her.

"But Ikuto isn't..." Grace added grimly.

"Iku...to...?" Alyssa droned, not exactly remembering having a sexy catboy on their team...

"Yeah... I'll explain in the morning." Taylor told her, tired and wanting to get back to sleep.

"Um... so were the kidnappers those guys I just saw...?" Alyssa asked.

Taylor nodded. "We've decided to... let them go for now, let them pass on a warning to their boss..."

"Ah..." Alyssa replied. "Also, when did Itachi get here...?" she asked, seeing the Uchiha standing idly by.

"Morniiiing..." Taylor repeated herself, waving off the question.

Alyssa sighed. "So I missed everything..."

"That's what you get for being lazy, baka!" Taylor scolded.

"Tch." Alyssa replied, trudging back to bed.

* * *

><p>"Chidori Stream!" a voice resonated, followed by the sound of birds chirping. After that, a blinding purple flash lit up the area, and when the light cleared, the angst-radiating ninja found himself no longer in Orochimaru's lair, but on top of an unfamiliar building, the air sour to his lungs. Confused, he scanned his surroundings, looking for anything familar.<p>

_Where am I...?_ he wondered. Having no idea himself, he wandered off in search of some answers...

* * *

><p>AN- I wrote the majority of these last few chapters all in one day, surprizing ne? My muse finally decided to work with me! Plus I really didn't expect this whole scene to drag on for so long... From Itachi showing up at the house to everyone going back to sleep and stuff, only five pages of the roleplay thread! (Which isn't much with ten posts per page and all of us only writing a few lines each...)

Now if only I could be this motivated for MLH...

Edit: Fixed those typos...


	10. What? Chicken butt

"Yay...! Finally, some sleep!" Taylor said to herself the next morning (technically more like noon), yawning and stretching. _I wonder who else is up... _she thought to herself, wandering upstairs to the living room. As she wandered downstairs in search of everyone she was surprised to find a mainly silent first floor, and assumed that everyone else was still asleep. She walked into the living room to find Itachi and Gaara, just sitting there and glaring at each other.

"Uh... good morning?" she greeted hesitantly.

"Good morning."

"Hn."

_Hey, at least he bothered to grunt! _Taylor thought happily, sitting down on the couch right next to him, picking up the TV remote and flipping through the channels.

"Good morning~~!" Grace greeted on her way down the stairs. "Are Alyssa and Len up yet?"

"I saw Alyssa head into the computer room a while ago." Gaara informed. "Len is probably still asleep."

"Oh, really?" Taylor spoke up, having thought the two were both still asleep.

Gaara nodded.

"Hmm... I'm gonna go get some breakfast..." Grace commented mainly to herself, proceeding to raid Taylor's kitchen for food.

Taylor, still flipping through the TV channels, eventually stopped on one of the news channels, where she caught the end of something _very _intriguing. "HEY EVERYONE! GET YOUR BUTTS OUT HERE!"

"What happened!" Grace exclaimed, so startled by Taylor's voice that she dropped the box of cereal she'd just opened and let it spill all over the floor. Not even caring, she raced out into the living room. "What! Is it the anime-hunting people again! Is the firehouse on fire! What is it girl!"

Itachi and Gaara both stiffened slightly at what they had seen. Not sure how to comment, especially with each other in the room...

"Rawr what's going on...?" Alyssa asked tiredly, making her way out of the dark computer room. "How important is it? Cuz I was busy posting on Tenshi Jigoku-"

"Go get Len." Taylor interrupted her, the TV paused. "I want everyone down here for this."

"I'll go get him!" Grace quickly volunteered, before racing back upstairs to find the vocaloid. Upon barging into his room, she found him fast asleep, probably still exhausted from the previous night. "Aw he looks so peaceful..." she commented to herself. The fangirl then knelt down next to his bed, leaned in close to his ear, and said, "WAKE UP!"

Len awoke with such a start that he fell off the other side of the bed and landed on his face. He scrambled to his feet as quickly as possible. "What was that for?" he asked irritably.

"Taylor said she had some important news for us all." Grace informed. "I have no idea what it is, though..."

Len scratched his head, a bit too tired to be thinking. "Important... news...?

"Yep! Now come on, she's waiting for us!" Grace exclaimed as she grabbed Len's arm, dragging him downstairs.

"Ok here's blondey!" Grace called as she made her way down the stairs, full of energy as always. "Now what was it you wanted to show us?"

"Gyah...! Let go of me!" Len demanded, struggling to get out of Grace's grasp. He eventually freed himself but then clumsily tripped, spun around, and eventually landed in someone else's arms. "Thanks, Taylor. Huh, you feel a lot more muscular than you look..." Len trailed off before noticing the dark cloak and the face of the Uchiha holding him up. "YOU'RE NOT TAYLOR!" Len screamed in surprise before quickly getting back on his feet, and running to hide behind Alyssa.

Taylor's eyes widened in response to what she'd just seen, and the otaku found herself screaming at Len, "NOOOOOO! You took his first hug! I was supposed to be his first hug!" she wailed, curling up in a depressed little ball, the news report forgotten about.

"Oh no... fangirl depression... the worst kind..." Grace commented, then ran over to comfort Taylor, patting her on the back. "Don't worry Taylor, the first kiss is still open! Unless there were some off-screen yaoi moments between the weasel and the fishy we should know about!"

Taylor chuckled slightly, "Yeah, I guess you're right... and the first glomp is still open, too..." she added sinisterly.

"Wasn't there something important you were going to show everyone?" Gaara spoke up, though he had a pretty good idea what it was...

"Oh! Right!" Taylor exclaimed, turning to the rest of the group. "So I just saw on the news that some guy got attacked in an alley, and described the attacker as having 'freaky red eyes', and black hair-"

"SEBASTIAN MICHEALIS?" Alyssa guessed excitedly, followed by silence.

"...and black hair _shaped like a chicken's butt._" Taylor finished, still glaring at Alyssa.

Grace let out a rather loud gasp. "OMG SASUKE IS HERE?"

Itachi stiffened nearby.

Alyssa seemed slightly disappointed it wasn't the alternative. "At least it's a character I know..."

Taylor sighed. "Yes... you know him from when he was twelve, back in the good ol'-"

Uchiha death glare.

"Shutting up now."

"Yeah, Sasuke was a cute little twelve-year-old," Grace commented. "But then the pedo-snake got to him and made him even more of a revenge-seeking crazy chicken-butt-haired butt-face than he already was! Oh and Itachi, I suggest telling him the truth eventually, cuz if you don't then Madara's going to and I think it would've been better if you told him..."

"YOU IDIOT!" Taylor yelled, whacking Grace with a pillow. "Alyssa hasn't read that far yet! You spoiler! Die spoiler!" and the whacking continued.

"Ow pillows hurt!" Grace whined.

"I'd prefer," Itachi bit out. "If you didn't talk about that."

"I was just giving him advice! Things would've worked out a _lot _better don't you think?" Grace asked rhetorically. "And Itachi, I promise to never speak of it again... if you let me braid you hair."

"No." Itachi replied flatly.

Taylor chuckled. Even Alyssa and Len looked like they were about to laugh, trying to picture Itachi with his hair braided all fancy-like by Grace.

"Aaaaaaanyway..." Alyssa then spoke up. "What are we gonna do about him? Like Taylor said I really don't know the Shippuden Sasuke... assuming that's who we're dealing with... so I'm not sure if you guys even wanna go find him..."

"Yeah, let's just... go get him for the heck of it." Taylor answered. "He'll be fun to tease, eh Grace?"

"Yes! I wanna tease the duck-butt-haired prince of emoness!" Grace cheered.

"Now, _how_ are we gonna find him?" Alyssa asked. "I doubt that news report says where he is currently..."

"Hm... good point..." Taylor commented, thinking it out for a moment. "Wait, Itachi,"

"Hn."

"...Can't you sense Sasuke's chakra signature?"

"...Hn."

"...How long have you been able to sense it?"

Itachi looked away. "...Hn."

"Don't just grunt! How long have you known he was here!"

"Taylor," Gaara spoke up. "I have only noticed his chakra signature recently." he explained. "And it seems to be getting closer..."

Grace gasped. "Maybe Sasuke sensed that Itachi was here and now the angsty ninja's coming over here for his revenge or something!"

"...So... are we waiting for him to show up here or...?" Alyssa asked hesitantly.

"I think it's smarter for us to meet him halfway." Taylor answered. "And then... somehow... convince him not to fight Itachi, as that would probably be in everyone's best interest..."

"Let's go, then!" Grace cheered, eager to find Itachi's poultry-haired brother. "Lead the way, chakra-sensing Naruto characters!"

"And, on the way, Alyssa, I should probably fill you in on what happened last night..." Taylor added as everyone began to file out of the room.

As everyone made their way out the door to go Uchiha-hunting, Taylor and Itachi were the last two in the room.

"Hey Itachi..."

He glanced in her direction.

"I don't think this is at all how you or Sasuke planned for things to happen, but, do you think it's possible for you and your brother to play nice while we get this whole situation sorted out...?"

Itachi glanced at the ground, unsure of what he would do. "...Hn."

Taylor sighed, following the others out of the house. "I guess we'll just hope for the best..."

* * *

><p>As everyone was leaving, Len was positive he saw some sort of purple flash - like the one he'd seen when he got sucked into this world, only smaller - out of the corner of his eye... He couldn't place exactly where it could've come from. "Hey, Alyssa, did you see that?"<p>

"Hm?" the poofy-haired otaku asked, having no idea what he was talking about. "See what?"

"That... purple thing... did anyone see it?" the vocaloid asked.

The Naruto characters seemed to have more important matters on their mind and didn't bother answering.

"Purple thing? What?" Taylor echoed, only catching the end of what Len had just said.

Len glanced back towards the side of the house, where he thought he'd seen it. "Uh... never mind... I guess I was just seeing things." he told the rest of them, shaking the thought out of his mind. It was nothing. "Let's go find that Sasuke guy..." he added, re-joining the rest of the group, the small distraction forgotten.

* * *

><p>AN- New chapter is finally up! Kinda short though... I apologize... and yes it is becoming very Naruto-oriented but DON'T WORRY! I promise there will be more characters and more animes... soon... just be patient. ^^'


	11. Sasuke's Angst, and Len's Cowardice

"What! Len was kidnapped last night?" Alyssa shrieked, the six of them wandering the streets on their hunt for Sasuke.

"Almost." Gaara corrected. "Well not even almost... we heard Len's screams and came to his aid immediately." he explained. "There were only two men, and they were very weak, so there wasn't much of a problem..."

"Len did that really happen?" the fangirl asked, sounding concerned.

Len nodded shakily, head down. He needed no help remembering the experience, and now everyone had to fill Alyssa in on what happened which gave him the perfect opportunity to re-live it...

"One good thing came out of it, though." Taylor spoke up. "We got the chance to interrogate the men and find out what their goal was... turns out they're part of a big organization called Operation Anime, and..."

"Do they have something to do with the characters coming into this world?"Alyssa guessed.

"Sadly no... they know nothing about that... and they've come up with a pretty stupid way to fix the problem instead..."Taylor answered, gritting her teeth at the last part.

"Well then what do they-"

"THOSE BUTT-FACE OA AGENTS THINK IT'S OK TO JUST GO AROUND KILLING CHARACTERS ALL THE TIME!" Grace blurted out. "They try killing all the characters that come here! That's what they did to poor Ikuto and what they were gonna do to Len if they got away last night!" she ranted.

"Grace be quiet!" Gaara scolded. "If you scream things like that loud enough for the whole town to hear, then OA will just attack again any minute!"

"Wait, so Ikuto is... dead?" Alyssa asked, sounding shocked.

Taylor sighed. "Unfortunately yes..." she answered. "And they continue to kill even now..." _Once we get the whole thing with Sasuke figured out we need to figure out how to put a stop to OA... _she contemplated. _I don't want any more innocent characters to die... _

Absorbed in her thoughts, Taylor hadn't noticed how the two ninjas had froze in their tracks, followed by the other two girls and Len. "...What's the problem?" she asked, though the realization hit her right after she asked. And before she had the chance to say anything more, a familiar voice echoed through the surroundings.

"Who's there." the voice growled.

"Well hello my foolish little brother," Itachi answered. "Lost?" he sneered.

Taylor gulped. _He's a totally different character around Sasuke... poor Itachi... _

"What the hell are you doing here, Itachi?" Sasuke snarled, making himself visible from the top of a building.

Len hid behind Alyssa. He knew Itachi was dangerous, assumed Itachi's brother was dangerous and therefore figured a fight between the two would be very, very dangerous... Alyssa, also not the bravest in the group, then hid behind Taylor, and Len followed. Meanwhile, Grace was hiding behind Gaara.

"Same reason you're here." Itachi shrugged.

_Shit... we can't let them fight, we have to get Sasuke to join our little team so we can do something about OA... _Taylor contemplated. The otaku then slid away from Alyssa and Len, stood in front of Itachi, and boldly stated, "Sasuke Uchiha, we need to speak with you."

"Well I don't," Sasuke sneered. "I just want that bastard behind you." the Uchiha stated before he lunged, katana drawn.

Taylor flinched and closed her eyes, but nothing happened. No katana through her or anything... when she opened her eyes, she saw Itachi standing in front of her, holding back Sasuke's katana with a kunai. "Thanks, Itachi." she murmured.

_Sasuke is actually kinda scary in person... _Grace thought, still hiding behind Gaara, seeing the murderous look on the teen's face.

Sand then began to pour out of the kazekage's gourd. "Sasuke, now is not the time to be fighting with your brother. There is a larger matter at hand."

"What do you mean 'larger matter'?" Sasuke demanded, lowering his katana slightly.

"I mean we're not in our own world anymore." Gaara answered. "This is a different world where we are all considered mere fictional characters. And there are other characters like us popping up here, too, and they're all being hunted, including you. You and Itachi need to set aside your differences and get along until we can get back to our own world."

Sasuke was appalled by the idea. "I could never work with Itachi!" he spat. "Do you know what he did to my family!"

"GET OVER IT DUCK-BUTT-HAIRED BOY!" Grace shouted from behind Gaara, then shut up when Sasuke glared at her.

Gaara sighed. "Yes I know what he did. But if you want to survive in this world then you're going to have to get along with him..."

Sasuke contemplated this for a moment. "And if I don't?"

"Then you'll never get your revenge." Gaara answered.

Sasuke considered it, then, reluctantly, sheathed his sword. "...Hn."

Len let out a sigh of relief. "That went a lot better than expected..."

"Indeed it did!" Taylor grinned, looking exuberantly happy. Sasuke had agreed to join the team without really fighting Itachi at all, it hadn't taken up much time and no one was hurt, so now Sasuke was around not only so the fangirls could tease him but also he'd be on their side in the battle against OA. Everything had worked out perfectly. "Now, back to my house!" she chirped, then grabbed Itachi, and as she pranced back in the direction they came, she started... singing... "Yo ho! Yo ho! It's off to home we go! Do! Do-lo-lo-lo, lo-lo-lo-lo...!"

Everyone sweat dropped.

* * *

><p>"Food's done for people who care...!" Taylor called, having just finished making pasta for everyone for dinner later that evening. She then noticed Sasuke, who had been sitting in the kitchen and staring at her for a little while. "...Yes, chicken-butt?"<p>

"Why is Itachi here?" he growled.

Taylor sighed. "Like I tried explaining to you on the way back, characters like you are popping up here seemingly randomly... I guess it's just luck that we found him." she explained. Then, to the rest of the house, "...I SAID THE FOOD WAS READY! GET YOUR RUMPUSES OUT HERE!"

"You have too many personalities." Itachi informed her, stepping into the kitchen.

"Thank you!" Taylor grinned, hugging him. After the hug was over she glanced down at the ground, looking a bit disappointed...

"...What?" Itachi asked.

"...It's not the same being the _second _person to hug you..."

"Hn." Itachi was sorry he even asked. He then brushed past the fangirl and proceeded to take a plate of spaghetti.

"Pastaaaa~" Alyssa sang as she entered the kitchen, Len following behind.

"...You must really like pasta..." the vocaloid commented, referring to the way she said it and the high-pitched voice she said it in.

"Well yes, I do, but that was more an anime reference than anything else." she explained, grinning.

Len decided it wasn't worth asking about.

"Yay pasta!" Grace chirped, skipping into the room, holding Gaara's hand.

"Grace you don't have to hold my hand everywhere we go." Gaara told her.

"Silly Gaara, it's more fun like this!" Grace retorted, ruffling his hair. She then glanced over to the table where Sasuke and Itachi were sitting together, not even glaring at each other or anything. "Aww...! The Uchiha brothers are getting along!"

The two brothers both sent a simultaneous death glare at her and she sweatdropped. "...Sorta."

Upon seeing this, Taylor got an evil idea. "Hey Grace... do you think we should show them ItaSasu?"

"Ewww... ItaSasu!" Grace laughed. "Oh yes definitely!"

Itachi froze, a noodle hanging out of his mouth. "Ita...Sasu? What is that." he asked flatly.

"Before you ask Gaara it's worse than GaaLee, so I suggest you don't look!" Grace warned.

Gaara thought for a moment. "...I'm definitely not looking."

"Hm... then after that we should show Sasuke NaruSasu, oh the torture!" Taylor laughed.

Itachi sighed, then ignored them as he went back to eating.

Taylor then glanced over at Sasuke, and noticed he hadn't taken any food. "Why won't you eat the spaghetti?" she asked. "The sauce has tomatoes in it..."

"Hn."

"...There are tomatoes in the fridge..."

"Hn...?" Sasuke then got up to look.

"Good boy!" Taylor chirped, ruffling his hair. She then came to a startling realization, and the look on her face turned to one of pure amazement "OMG...Grace! Grace! THERE'S NO GEL IN HIS HAIR!"

Grace gasped. "That's not possible!" she exclaimed, before racing over there and glomping him, and still on top of him, ran her fingers through his hair. "Gah you're right! How does that even work!"

Taylor, meanwhile, gaped at Grace and Sasuke in horror. "NOOOOOOOO!" she wailed for the second time that day.

"Oh what is it now..." Itachi muttered.

"You took his first glomp!" Taylor whined. "And Naruto stole his first kiss!"

Itachi and Gaara choked on their spaghetti. "He kissed the Kyubi container?" Itachi asked once he'd caught his breath, uncharacteristically shocked.

Sasuke's face was getting redder by the second. "I was twelve! He was pushed! Shut the hell up!" he spat.

"Yes Taylor I stole his first glomp," Grace smirked. "If you wanted to glomp him you should've done so!"

Taylor glared at her, then she got another evil idea. "No it's fine, I suppose..." she said slyly as she walked over to where Gaara was sitting, and then, leaning in closer, gave him a quick kiss on the lips, watching Grace's eyes widen in shock, before walking back over to where she was and sitting next to Itachi. "How's that?

Grace's face had turned to a look of horror. "YOU BUTT-FACE!" she screamed at Taylor, before she ran over to Itachi, planning to do the same to him... and then Itachi puffed. His clone had vanished.

"...Huh... where the hell did he go?" Taylor asked.

"He left not that long ago." Sasuke answered. "While you two were fangirling..." he then continued to nom on his tomato.

"Aw come on!" Grace whined. "That's just not fair!"

"Haha. You lose, Grace." Taylor teased, sticking her tongue out at her.

Sasuke suddenly stood up. "This is annoying. I'm leaving." he stated plainly.

"Be careful," Taylor warned. ""If you leave the premises of the house you might be kidnapped."

"Hn." he grunted in response, exiting the front door and heading for the roof.

Alyssa, who had mainly just been observing from the sidelines until then, just sighed. "I love how you two are constantly tormenting Sasuke and the other characters from his anime and poor Len is over here completely ignored..." she commented. "I say, it's _his _turn to be tormented by fangirls." she stated, pounding her fist on the table.

"...I think I'm content being forgotten." Len replied, wondering what the girls could possible hold over him, anyway.

"I'm not!" Alyssa ranted, determined to give all the characters equal fangirl torture. "To start, let's talk about pairings! Who do you like, Len? What pairings even exist for real in the Vocaloid world, anyway? I mean pretty much every Vocaloid song is set in a different universe or something so I have no idea what your world even looks like at all..."

"Hm... good questions..." Taylor commented, stroking her invisible beard. "Let's start with the first one, who _do _you like, Len?"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Sasuke sat on the roof, contemplating things. He was so close to the person he despised more than anyone else in the world, yet he could do nothing about it... how frustrating. Why did he even agree to team up with the fangirls, anyway? All that did for him was let him be tortured by fans and frustrated by not being able to attack the person he hated most...<p>

_Says who? _a voice that sounded like Orochimaru's hissed.

...Yeah, why couldn't he? He was stronger than anyone else here... it's not like the girls would have any idea what to do if he _did _decide to fight Itachi...

"What are you thinking about, little brother?" a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts. Itachi was standing just a few meters away.

"Stay the hell away from me, bastard." Sasuke snarled, getting to his feet.

Itachi smirked, and stepped closer. "Why?"

* * *

><p>"Awww does that mean you have a crush on Miku?" Grace chirped.<p>

"I never said that!" Len defended himself, face reddening.

"You can take that as a yes." Alyssa answered, grinning.

"Awww Len's shy!" Grace teased. "You guys would be so cute together, Lenny boy! I support you!" she explained, giving him a thumbs up.

* * *

><p>"Stay. Away. From. Me." Sasuke snarled coldly again, as Itachi just continued to move towards him. Shaking angrily, Sasuke's sharingan activated. "Stay away!" he shouted, throwing a punch at Itachi, which was blocked.<p>

"Careful otouto," Itachi teased, blocking each attack Sasuke delivered. "You might get hurt."

* * *

><p>Len sighed. The girls talking about all the other vocaloids got him thinking about what was going on back at home... They were all probably worried sick about him, ever since he disappeared from his own world, especially Rin. And then there was the possibility that not all of them were still in his world anymore, either. He couldn't stop thinking back to what the OA agent said... about how more characters were being killed all the time... one of them could be someone he knew and he'd have no way of knowing they even died... that in mind, he began to feel sick.<p>

"You ok, Len?" Grace asked, noticing the change in his expression.

"I was just thinking... about OA..." he muttered.

Taylor patted Len on the shoulder. "Len... so long as you and the other anime characters are here, they'll keep coming. As long as we have strong ninjas, though," she gestured towards Gaara. "They won't be able to hurt you." she reassured him.

"That's not what I'm worried about, though..." Len added silently.

Taylor, however, was distracted by the sounds of birds chirping outside. "...Is that the chidori?" she asked.

Gaara glanced up at the roof. "Baka Sasuke... that's going to attract attention..."

* * *

><p>Interrupting their little fight, Sasuke suddenly found himself... entangled in rope? He'd been so busy fighting with his brother that he hadn't noticed the men surrounding them, who'd just shot the two with rope. Spinning around and scanning the surrounding area, he then noticed the group of men, whose dark uniforms left them well concealed in the night shadows.<p>

"Now you're faced with a choice." one spoke up, revealing themselves.

"You can come with us peacefully or bring us to use force." another continued. "Your choice."

* * *

><p>AN- I SPENT MY ENTIRE SATURDAY WRITING FANFICTION! Only problem is I have to write them on paper first and then type them up later... which in my opinion, is a waste of time... bleh...

Also, I got a review with certain anime requests... among other odd comments involving Itachi and a bamboo hat... anyway, a review like that means it's time to remind you that I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP AS I GO ALONG! ^^' Once again, it's based off of an epic, insanely long, still-running, over a year long fanfiction I did with my two friends Cheetay (Taylor) and Animegal1251 (Grace). Therefore, this fanfiction is mainly just a re-write of everything that happened in the roleplay, just a lot better written and with a few plot holes tied up. And because of that, I can't fulfill requests whenever I want... so if you make anime/character requests, I'm sorry to say they're in vain... And because my friends and I were pretty much weeaboos at the start of this, I'm again sorry to say there won't be a ton of anime variation until a bit longer. ^^' But have faith... more animes are soon to come... we were in the process of our blossoming as otakus while the beginning of the original story was playing out...

Aaaand I think that's it for this unusually long author's note. o.o' Please review...~


	12. The Plan

Sasuke and Itachi scanned the roof, the rope keeping them weakly bound together. Ten OA agents, and the two of them.

This would not take long.

A kunai slid out of Itachi's sleeve and cut the two brothers free from the rope. Before the OA members had time to react, Sasuke began making hand signs, already preparing for an attack.

Reacting, one of the OA agents drew his weapon, and motioned for the others to do the same. But before he could even prepare to shoot, he found himself locking eyes with Sasuke, who had his fingers drawn up to his mouth.

And Sasuke was the last thing the grunt saw before he was suddenly engulfed by a huge ball of fire.

"That may have been a bit overboard, little brother." Itachi pestered him as the charred OA member fell off the roof.

"Hn."

The remaining grunts were shocked by the attack, thus causing them to hastily open fire out of fear.

Itachi, nimbly dodging the bullets, easily knocked several of the troops unconscious by hitting pressure points in their necks.

Sasuke, however, had gone with the more violent approach. lightning covered his hand and he prepared the chidori...

* * *

><p>"So am I the only one who saw a flaming human body plummet to the ground?" Alyssa spoke up nervously, pointing to the window.<p>

Grace was about to say something that would probably be in all caps when everyone's attention turned to the sound of the chidori from above them. "Ugh what's that duck-butt doing up there?" she asked in an annoyed voice instead.

"Damn... he better not be fighting Itachi or anything..." Taylor mumbled.

Gaara's eyes narrowed. "I'm going to go see what the problem is..." he stated, getting up and heading for the door.

...

"You know..." Len timidly spoke up after Gaara had left. "I bet they're fighting those anime-hunting people from last night... not each other..." the vocaloid explained, curled up in a fearful little ball.

"Aww... don't worry about it, Len!" Alyssa told Len, glomping him. "OA can't get to you when we have strong characters on our side, and with them being so weak I know there's no way they could get past Itachi or Sasuke!"

"Yeah really!" Grace added. "These guys are so weak I could probably beat them up myself if I tried! I just won't cuz then I'd risk breaking a nail or something!"

"Yeah, I know..." Len replied, though he still looked rather worried. Because of course it wasn't himself he was worried about.

* * *

><p>Gaara appeared on the roof of the house in the midst of the fight. The Kazekage was about to ask what was going on (though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer) when a gunshot was heard, as Gaara turned his head to see that a gun had been pointed in his direction, but the bullet had been blocked by a wall of sand before it could touch him.<p>

The terrified OA grunt was about to back away, when Gaara's sand moved in towards him, covering him in it, as the Uchiha's finished off the last of the others.

Once the rest of the troops had either been knocked out or killed, the two brothers approached Gaara and the one grunt that was captured.

"Sand coffin." Gaara hissed, bringing the sand tight around the man, raising him in the air slightly. The gurnt looked back at the ninjas terrifiedly, scared speechless. "I could kill you easily at this point..." Gaara told him. "...But that would be pointless." he then lowered the sand onto the grass down below, and freed the helpless OA agent, watching him flee. As he watched the man ran off, he called after him, "And tell your leader that if he wants to kill ninjas he's going to have to do a lot better than sending weaklings like you!"

The two brothers hopped off the room and landed on the ground below, heading back inside. Gaara followed.

"That's been taken care of." Gaara spoke up as he and the other ninjas reentered the house.

"Was it really OA?" Alyssa asked curiously.

Gaara nodded. "They were hardly any threat, though." he explained. "They don't seem like a group we'll have to worry about much."

"See Len? I told you there's nothing to worry about!" Grace chirped.

"Well yeah," Len replied quietly. "Not for us, but-"

"Ok, um, now we need to take care of the unconscious people on the roof..." Taylor spoke up. "And the dead ones... Sasuke you baka, you killed them!"

"They were going to kill us." Sasuke replied coldly.

"KILLING IS WRONG!" Grace scolded, hitting Sasuke in the back of the head with a pillow.

"Grace is right." Taylor added. "The grunts are mostly innocent. If anyone needs to die, it's their boss. But killing all the weak troops that are just following orders and can't even hurt you makes you no better than them!" she scolded. "Baka vaca!" (Translation: stupid cow.)

"Um, speaking of OA, you guys," Len tried to intervene. "I think we should-"

"Now I really don't want any news reporters or anything on my ass, so go take care of the bodies!" Taylor ordered, pointing to the door.

"Why me?" Sasuke scoffed.

"Because you killed them, foolish little brother."

"Hey, um, guys?" Len spoke up timidly.

"Work out the Uchiha issues another time! Just go before I hurt you!"

"Like you can hurt me-"

**"HEY! YOU GUYS!" **Alyssa suddenly yelled, bringing out her extra loud voice that she only uses on rare occasions, like trying to get the attention of someone far away in a very crowded and very noisy area, thus quieting the room and gaining everyone's attention. "...Len would like to say something." she spoke in a much quieter tone, giving the vocaloid the chance to speak.

"Um, right, so..." Len resumed, not quite sure where to begin anymore. "Basically what I was saying was that I'm not worried about OA attacking us anymore... I mean you're right, with our strong ninjas it's not something we need to worry about..." he started to explain, though he still sounded rather nervous. "But that's not what's bugging me... What I'm worried about is all the characters coming into this world who _don't _have ninjas or whatever to protect them, or even a house or anything to hide in. Weak characters like me! Like the people I know and care about! Rin, Miku, Kaito, Meiko... if any of them were to come here, OA would probably capture them before they even had the slightest chance of protecting themselves, and they'd be killed without us even knowing..." he explained sadly, his voice cracking at the end as if he was on the verge of breaking into tears. Everyone, even Grace, stayed silent and waited for him to finish...

"What I'm trying to say is..." Len continued, wiping the barely-formed tears from his eyes, trying to bring himself back together. "We need to start planning how we're going to take care of OA. Like right now. The OA agent from last night said that they kill more characters all the time... so they're probably doing some killing even right now! We don't have any time to waste, we have to so something before they kill someone one of us cares about!"

The house was silent for a bit as they all let Len's speech sink in, until Sasuke scoffed. "The rest of you can figure out what to do, but I refuse to work with Itachi. Besides, I have no one left that I care about..."

Hearing that only enraged the vocaloid. There was no way Sasuke didn't have anyone that he cared about. It just wasn't possible! "There's no way that's true!" Len shot back. "There has to be _someone_ whose death would effect you! Don't you have a family back at home that you're worried abo-_mpff!"_ Len was cut off as Alyssa covered his mouth with her hand.

"That's kinda a sore subject, Len..." she whispered.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at him. Len was awfully lucky he had too much on his mind to bother responding to that. "...Hn." he grunted.

Then followed another short, awkward silence.

"...Anyway, Len does have a point." Taylor spoke up to end the awkward silence. "We have plenty of time tonight to start thinking of how we're going to stop OA. After all, it's true that there are lives at stake..." she added darkly. "...So, any ideas?"

Everyone took a moment to consider how to go about this. Interestingly enough, it wasn't very long before Itachi's head perked up. "I think I have a plan." he stated.

"Good. Let's hear it." Taylor requested.

"Len," Itachi started, turning his head towards the vocaloid. "Last night when you were attacked, the men did imply they were going to take you someplace, correct?"

"Um, y-yeah, I think so..." Len answered. "Why...?"

"Because, if that's what was implied, then they must have a base of operation where most of the killing takes place." Itachi concluded. "And that, of course, is where me would have to attack."

"But how are we supposed to get there if we have no idea where it even is?" Len asked.

"That brings me to the second half of my plan..." Itachi replied. "But it involves using one of us as bait."

"Bait?" Len echoed, sounding terrified at the idea. "Are you sure you've thought this through?"

Itachi nodded. "We leave a character somewhere and wait for OA to capture them. When they are captured, OA will probably bring them to their headquarters with one of those vans," he explained, gesturing to the suspicious black van that could be seen out of the window, likely belonging to OA. "And the rest of us will follow, ready to attack if anything happens, and they'll lead us right to their base."

"And when we get there...?" Taylor questioned.

"Well first thing's first we have to rescue or bait before OA can manage to get too far with them," Itachi answered. "And in the process of doing that, we can take a set of keys or whatever else they use to get in right off of one of the grunts, and work our way from there."

Taylor nodded. "Wow, you're smart... I guess this is why you became an Anbu captain at just age fourteen!" she grinned.

"So who's gonna be the bait?" Alyssa asked.

"Well it has to be a character, of course," Itachi answered. "And it should be one that can't fight, either... OA has seen Gaara, Sasuke and myself fight, and we've always been letting a few get away to return to wherever they came from. Therefore, having one of our battle-capable characters out there letting themselves get captured would look too suspicious." he explained. "So the only one who meets the requirements is Len." he finished, watching as a look of horror crossed the vocaloid's face.

"W-what?" I can't be bait!" Len shrieked. "What if something goes wrong? What'll happen to me then!"

"Yeah don't make Len do it!" Grace exclaimed. "Hasn't the poor guy been through enough? It was your plan Itachi so you should do it!"

"No. Itachi is mine and mine alone to kill." Sasuke hissed.

"Aww he's defending his brother! How sweet!" Taylor chirped.

Itachi sighed. "No one is going to die... we'll be right behind you the whole time, Len, ready to attack if something does go wrong. You have nothing to worry about."

Sadly, Len still wasn't sure he trusted Itachi. After all he'd only met the guy yesterday and with no prior knowledge about him whatsoever, and now he was supposed to trust him with his life? "I-I dunno..."

"Len, you were the one who wanted to attack OA so badly," Itachi pressed on. "If you still want to fight back as soon as possible, then I suggest you trust us..."

Itachi was right. No one had any better idea to get into OA, and if any other character took that position then OA might know something was up. Len was the one who wanted to attack OA the most, so he should be the one to act as bait. "F-fine..." he answered reluctantly.

Taylor nodded. "Good! Should we try this tomorrow? After all Len you said as soon as possible, but it's already dark out so I don't think tonight is the best idea..."

Len nodded hesitantly. "S-sure..."

"Great!" Taylor cheered, then glanced at the clock. "Hm... like 7:45... you guys can do whatever for now I guess, since it seems like we have tomorrow planned out well enough..." she informed everyone. "Oh, and Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"Before you run off to do whatever... take care of the dead bodies please..."

* * *

><p>AN- Fishy is not good with battle sequences, methinks... DX Feedback there would be appreciated.

Also, NEXT CHAPTER WILL HAVE AT LEAST ONE NEW ANIME AND POSSIBLY MORE I PROMISSSSE! Naruto will be taking a break...


	13. Sooooo Muuuuuch Aaaaaangst DX

"What... on earth...?" a feminine voice whispered to herself, having just found herself outdoors, randomly, in some sort of forest-like area. The young blonde scanned the area around her, confused. "Where am I? How did I get here?" she asked aloud, sounding worried. She was safe and sound in her own home two seconds ago... then a bright purple flash lit up her vision for just a moment, before she suddenly found herself here.

_Where... should I go? What should I do? _the teenage girl asked herself, no idea where to advance from this point. She'd looked ahead in every direction but she still saw no familiar surroundings, nothing that looked like home, nothing but a bunch of trees and the like. Still utterly confused, she at least understood that standing there doing nothing would bring her no closer to figuring out what was going on, so she at least began to wander around a bit, looking for any sort of clue as to what was going on, anything familiar.

* * *

><p>"Stupid fangirls..." Sasuke grumbled on his way down the stairs. of all the otakus he had to bunk with, it had to be Grace, and of course Sasuke <em>loved <em>that her annoying voice was the first thing he heard in the morning. At any rate, that same otaku, in all her laziness, decided to give Sasuke the job of getting everyone awake that morning. Hn.

As he made his way into the living room, he found Taylor asleep on the couch. Interestingly enough, Sasuke could hear her mumbling something in her sleep. Strange girl...

Sasuke was about to interrupt whatever it was she was dreaming about when Taylor began moving about in her sleep, and her mumbling became a bit more audible, so Sasuke could understand what she was saying.

"Itachi..."

He froze, then narrowed his eyes at the girl. What _was _she dreaming about?

"Itachi, no... you can't... don't die..."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed further. _She knows... how he dies? _Then, it all pieced together. _Of course she does! Our existence is just a fictional story in this world, one that these girls seem to know very well, or at least Taylor does. She knows almost everything about us. She knows how he dies, I just have to get her to tell me... _he thought, already beginning to devise a plan... Then, he remembered why he approached Taylor in the first place. "Hey, wake up," he called monotonously, shaking her lightly. "We're attacking OA today..."

"Huh? Wha...?" Taylor replied groggily, her tired eyes blinking open to see Sasuke standing over her. "Oh, good morning duck-butt..."

* * *

><p>Still wandering, the girl who'd appeared in this world most recently still didn't have a clue where she was, how she got there, or how to get back. She had, however, come up with an odd little theory. <em>I wonder... <em>she thought. _If this is what happened to Len and Miku... just randomly vanishing to some other place... _she sighed, and sat down on the forest floor to take a break from walking. _That being said, where are they now...? I really hope they're alright, wherever they are... _

Her little break didn't last long, though, as she was quickly distracted by the sounds of something - or someone - moving in the forest. She scanned the area around her for whatever it was, but before she could even figure it out, she was startled by the sudden appearance of someone next to her, someone in a mysterious black uniform. "Hello there." he greeted. "You lost?"

The blonde jumped, clearly startled. Where did this guy come from? "Um, y-yes... actually..." she replied in an artificial-sounding voice.

The OA grunt smirked. "I think I can help you with that," he told her, turning to walk away. "Care to follow me?"

The vocaloid wasn't sure if this guy was to be trusted. After all that was some rather suspicious apparel he was wearing... and was that a gun he had? Wait, no... if he has a gun on him, and handcuffs, too, as well as what appeared to be some sort of uniform, would it be safe to assume he's some sort of policeman or something? In this unfamiliar area... yeah, that makes sense. "Um, s-sure..." the girl, Rin, answered unsurely, following after him as he began to walk away. "Where are you taking me?"

"Oh you'll see," the grunt replied. "I assure you though, you won't have to stick around here much longer."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, the otaku gang was making breakfast (Taylor decided on bacon and eggs) and the kitchen was full of the sounds of mindless anime chatter.<p>

"I STILL HAVE TO GET MY REVENGE ON YOU FOR STEALING GAARA'S FIRST KISS, TAYLOR!" Grace yelled, running across the kitchen and nearly glomping Itachi, just so she could finally land a kiss on him, which she did succeed in. "Ha!" she taunted at Taylor. "And please don't kill me, Itachi..."

The Uchiha shoved her away roughly, looking rather pissed. "What was that for." he growled coldly.

"Oooooooh Grace is in trouuubleeeeee...~!" Taylor sang, grinning. "And by the way, I asked Itachi last night; he got his first kiss a _long _time ago." she reported, sticking her tongue out at Grace.

Itachi narrowed his eyes at her. "You never asked me-"

"Shhh!" Taylor cut him off.

"Ha! Looks like we _are _even!" Grace shot back, then followed by a very loud gasp. "NO WAIT!" she shouted. "I just remembered! Gaara wears sand armor! So technically you never kissed him you just kissed sand! See?" she chipped a small piece of it off of Gaara's face. "So the first kiss is still open!"

Gaara then glared down at her looking slightly annoyed, and Grace carefully put the sand back. "Sorry about that..."

Itachi sighed, rubbing his temples. _Let the fangirls fangirl... don't think about injuring Taylor... don't think about killing Grace... _

* * *

><p><em>"Assassin's rule number one... silence; dissolve in the darkness and erase your breath... wait for an opening to attack your target..."<em>

Rin glanced around the surrounding area. "Did you hear something?" she asked the OA member.

The OA grunt stopped in his tracks, and looked around as well. "Did you?"

_"Assassin's rule number two... trans-positional thinking; analyze the target in order to predict his thoughts and movements..."_

The OA agent, still searching for the source of the sound, reached for his gun.

"Eh? What are you doing!" Rin asked, surprised by the gesture.

_"Assassin's rule number three... speed; take out the target before... _huh?" the voice cut off, and then was drowned out by the sounds of a tree branch breaking. The young boy yelped as he fell from his perch, and he and the branch landed with a rather loud crash.

The OA grunt spun around to face the sound, and in doing so he finally caught a glimpse of the blue-haired boy.

Before the confused "assassin" could respond, the OA agent shot at his hand, and the weapon he was holding.

The spiky-haired boy cried out in pain as the bullet hit him, knocking his weapon partner out of his hand.

Rin was thoroughly confused and shocked. "Wh-what are you doing! Why are you attacking him!" she cried.

"Someone get the girl!" The agent cried out, before a second OA member jumped out of the shadows, grabbing Rin's arms and restraining her.

"Wh-what's happening?" Rin squeaked in terror, while being forcefully led away from the battle scene, until all she could hear were the faint sounds of struggle. Without an answer, Rin was quickly led to the edge of the forest and over to a suspicious black van, which upon seeing she began to struggle even more. "What is this! What are you doing! Let go of me!" the defenseless girl cried and pleaded as she struggled, but unfortunately she lacked the strength to free herself from the man's tight grip. The OA grunt began unlocking the back of the van- it looked like something the police use to transport criminals- what was going on?

Without a word, Rin was forcefully shoved into the back of the van, and the back entrance was quickly locked behind her.

* * *

><p>And meanwhile the otakus and their anime captives were happily nomming on their breakfast that Taylor had made for them (without any help... because Alyssa and Grace are lazy...) and continuing with their babbling in between bites of yummy bacon and eggs.<p>

"I wonder what the OA headquarters looks like..." Alyssa thought aloud.

"Good question..." Grace agreed, then leaving her imagination to piece together an image of the entire place. "I bet it's surrounded by guards... Ooh! And it's like this massive dungeon hidden somewhere! Or a castle and a drawbridge even!"

Gaara looked at her skeptically. "You honestly think it would look like that?"

"Well no probably not..." Grace admitted. "But it would be cool if it did..."

"I'd rather it not look so... deathly..." Len spoke up timidly, having hardly touched his breakfast.

"Oh, right..." Grace replied, remembering that Len had reluctantly volunteered to act as bait for OA in order for them to find out where the headquarters were, and she probably wasn't helping Len's already nervous mentality by going on about the possibilities. _Poor guy's gone through too much to be bait... he's probably picturing it as some sort of Nazi death camp or something!_

"So... changing the subject..." Sasuke spoke up after having remained silent most of the morning.

"Huh? Oh, you've been awfully quiet, duck-butt..." Taylor commented. "What is it?"

"Tell me... you know a lot about our 'anime', and the storyline of it, so, you pretty much know everything that's going to happen to us, right?" he asked.

The otaku considered for a moment how to answer. "Well... yeah, kinda..." Taylor replied nervously, worried she knew what Sasuke was trying to get at. "I mean the series is still going, so I don't know _everything... _but I know a lot, yeah."

"Then tell me..." he paused, smirking almost evilly at Taylor. "How does Itachi die?" he asked, sharingan twirling excitedly.

The rest of the room was silent. Everyone (except poor out-of-the-loop Len) knew that Sasuke had just pitched a pretty loaded question, which was possibly more dangerous to answer than it was to ask.

Taylor again had to think about exactly how to reply. "I... won't tell you."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Glaring at her, he growled, "Why not?"

"Well she probably thinks you're gonna try to kill Itachi..." Alyssa commented absentmindedly, playing with a strand of her hair.

Sasuke glared at annoying otaku #2. "Well I wasn't asking you. I was asking her. Why not!"

Taylor began to grow frustrated, not knowing how to reply. "Because... you're an idiot! That's why!" she screamed. "Now just leave me alone!"

Sasuke was a bit disappointed, but he was far from ready to give up. No, he'd planned for this. Swiftly he took out a kunai knife in one hand and grabbed a large poof of a certain anime-lover's hair in another, pulling Alyssa towards him and keeping her tightly restrained, holding the kunai tightly against her throat. Everyone in the room froze. "Tell me or she dies." he demanded darkly.

Alyssa began to beg and whimper in her high-pitched, terrified voice. "HOLY FRIGGING CRAP I GET ENOUGH DEATH THREATS AND SHARP OBJECTS HELD TO MY THROAT FROM KENDRA AND I MEAN NO OFFENSE TO HER BUT I THINK I FEAR SASUKE A WHOLE LOT MORE AND OMIGOSH SOMEONE DO SOMETHIIIIING!" she cried, water beginning to brim in the corners of her eyes.

"Let her go!" Taylor demanded.

"Then answer my question!" Sasuke yelled back, pressing the knife slightly harder.

"EEEEEEEEEEEP...!" Alyssa squeaked as the kunai was barely a flick of the wrist away from slitting her throat and ending her life and omigosh terror...!

"Taylor just tell him! It's either that or Alyssa dies! If you still won't tell him then I will!" Grace pleaded.

Alyssa was still holding her breath, terrified.

Taylor sighed. Biting her lip, she finally replied. "...Fine... just... let go of her first..."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted as he released his grip, allowing the otaku to scramble onto the floor and crawl away from the anime psycho... to hide behind Gaara...

"Yes... you and Itachi fight..." Taylor continued, hesitant on whether or not to reply truthfully.

"Who wins?" he asked excitedly.

Taylor sighs again and glances over at Itachi, whose eyes are clouded over sadly, which to Sasuke only seemed to reassure his suspicions.

"No one's concerned about me... that's fine..." Alyssa mumbled as she shakily got up from her position on the floor.

"Itachi... prevails," she started.

Itachi's head snapped up in confusion.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed again. "You mean I die," he snarled, stepping towards Taylor and Itachi, knife in hand.

"I... never said that..." Taylor defended herself. "I'm just saying that... Itachi prevails... in a way..." she explained. "And then... you hear something Itachi never wanted you to know..." she looked back at Itachi sadly, his eyes still cloudy.

Sasuke tilted his head. "So I get to kill him?" he smirked.

Taylor looked down at the ground. "In a sense..."

Sasuke snorted. "That's fine by me, then." he replied, ignoring that last detail. "I'm just happy knowing Itachi dies by my hands." he finished contently, turning to walk out of the room.

Then Grace spoke up, "That's why I think Itachi should tell Sasuke tha-" she was cut off as Gaara covered her mouth with his hand.

"Whatever you were about to say would probably get you killed," he told her. "So I suggest you stay silent."

Grace nodded, and Gaara let her go. "Darn it..." she whispered. "I really wanted Sasuke to know about that before it was too late..."

Itachi stared over at Grace, his eyes dull and saddened. "Don't ever speak of this again..." he told her softly.

Sasuke wasn't listening anymore. He didn't care. As he exited into the other room, he was just eager to return to his own world, to fulfill his already-written destiny. Win the battle he'd already won.

* * *

><p>AN- Fishflakes feels like she did not do a very good job with this chapter... but eh, I've kept you all waiting long enough... hope you liked. *feels like she was supposed to say something else but can't remember*


	14. Entering the First Dungeon

_What's gonna happen to me...? _Rin thought fearfully, crouched up in a corner of the back of OA's van. It was clear to her that these people certainly weren't there to help her; it was obvious after they shot that blue-haired boy, and forced her into the van... so then what did they plan to do with her? The vocaloid's mind was swarming with unpleasant possibilities...

She lifted her head when it became apparent that the van was coming to a stop.

"We're here." her captor spoke up indifferently, stepping out of the vehicle.

"Where's 'here'?" Rin asked quietly. She flinched when the light of day hit her face as the back of the van was opened up.

"Just get out of there." the grunt ordered, waiting for the girl to move. She remained frozen. "...Well come on now. You were cooperating so well up until now... we didn't even have to handcuff you. That makes you a pretty lucky girl, did you know that?"

"I-I am...?" she asked, turning her head towards the man.

"Oh sure." he answered. "Most of the time we have to be a lot more forceful... Remember that spiky-haired 'assassin' from earlier?"

Rin tensed. "What happened to him?" she asked.

The OA grunt laughed. "Well I don't know exactly... but I'm sure you're doing _way _better than him right now." he smirked.

Rin took a moment to let the thought sink in. After a minute, she bit her lip, and reluctantly stood up.

"Atta' girl!" he cheered. "Now come on, keep up this good behavior, and we'll make sure you're treated as humanely as possible until the end of your stay here!" he laughed.

Stepping out of the van, Rin took a moment to get a decent look at the surroundings. The whole area seemed well-concealed by surrounding forestation, like it was cleverly built in a natural depression in the landscape. There was a small parking lot filled with vans nearly identical to the one she'd been taken to the base in. But most noticeably, strait ahead, was the building itself. The black, ominous structure immediately giving her second thoughts about trying to resist capture...

She wanted to run. To get away. The grunt wasn't looking, she could just make a mad dash for the forest and maybe she'd get away... but she was too afraid of being shot down, so she just obeyed and followed, head down.

Len bit his lip nervously, glancing around the surrounding forest. _Let's see... what did the girls say? Wander around and look lost... yep... then react naturally when a bunch of weirdos pop out of nowhere, kidnap me, and take me away to some mysterious death trap... sounds easy enough... _he thought ever-so optimistically as he continued to wander, exactly as instructed. _Where even are those girls? _he asked himself, scanning the area around him. No sign of any of them, or the ninjas. _They all pretty much disappeared after they dropped me off here... way to make a guy feel safe..._

Meanwhile, the six other members of the team were high out of Len's view, up in the treetops above. The ninjas balancing on the branches in their very ninja-like way, and each of them carrying one of the otaku girls in a piggyback fashion.

"So when's Len gonna get caught?" Alyssa asked absentmindedly, clinging to Sasuke tightly (the more trustworthy ninjas were taken...) and playing with the Uchiha's hair to distract her from the fact that they were very, very high up...

Sasuke shushed her. "Give it time." he whispered. "OA will come for him eventually."

Meanwhile, Grace seemed to be busy fidgeting uncomfortably on Gaara's back.

...After a bit, the sand ninja glaced over his shoulder and gave the otaku a skeptical look. "...Are you okay back there?"

"Your gourd isn't very comfortable!" Grace whined, still struggling to find a bearable position to sit in.

Gaara sighed. "Maybe that's because it wasn't meant to be ridden..." he deadpanned.

"Everyone, shhh!" Taylor snapped, before pointing down at the forest floor. From their position above, the girls and ninjas could spot one of the black uniforms standing out against the surrounding foliage, one of the grunts creeping up on their target... waiting for a chance to approach him...

"...These guys pretty much just look like weird creepers from this angle..." Grace commented.

It wasn't long until Len, still wandering nervously, felt a tap on his shoulder, and he spun around to see the iconic black uniform he'd already grown so used to seeing. His natural reaction- letting out a short, high pitched, startled scream before stumbling backwards, tripping on a tree root, and falling on his back.

The OA agent, previously rather intimidating-looking, stood there giving Len an almost skeptical look. "...You okay over there?" he asked unsurely.

"Y-yeah... I'm fine..." Len replied quietly, shakily beginning to get back on his feet. _Do they always pop up out of nowhere like that? _he wondered.

"Need a hand?" the OA grunt offered.

"...What's he doing?" Taylor wondered aloud, still watching from above.

"They're probably acting friendly so that characters will trust them," Itachi started to explain. "So that it's not as much of a struggle to lead them to their deaths..."

The very thought made Taylor feel sick. "That's just... ugh..."

Len also wondered what to do with this gesture of kindness. _I should probably... play along... like I don't know about him..._ "Uh, th-thanks..." he replied, accepting his offer and allowing the OA member to help pull him off the ground.

"So, you lost?" the man asked.

"Uh, y-yeah..." Len answered. _Let's see... what else to say... _"It was so weird- All of a sudden I saw this purple light, and then I was here, aha, ahahaha..." he laughed nervously. _Yeah that's good... they probably get that a lot... _

The OA grunt tilted his head at this... odd character. "Well then..." he grinned. "I think I can help you with that..." he hinted, turning to walk away. "You comin'?"

"Uh, y-yeah!" Len spoke up, hurrying after him. _Hey, he didn't point a gun at me this time! This is going better than I thought it would..._

"They're taking the bait!" Grace whispered excitedly.

"Yup..." Taylor agreed. "Now let's see where he takes him..."

The ninjas dashed off in their ninja-ish way, following Len and the OA member while staying concealed in the treetops.

"Eep! Sasukeeee!" Alyssa whined, clinging to the Uchiha for dear life. "Not so faaaast!"

He silenced her angrily, "Shhh!"

* * *

><p>Rin swallowed thickly as she was led through the main doors of the giant building. While she waited for her vision to adjust to the relative darkness of indoors, she could only listen to what was happenning around her. She heard... voices. So many different voices. All of them begging, pleading... so many of them sounded deathly afraid... but of what?<p>

Her captor noticed that she had stopped walking. "...What is it now?"

"I... I..." Rin trembled. "I can't go any further!" Rin screamed. "What is this place? What are you going to do to me?"

The OA member turned around and crossed his arms. "Now you're starting to annoy me... can't you just follow me like a good girl?"

"But... but..." In that moment, Rin decided there was no point in trying to argue the point. She knew she couldn't follow along with this any more. Without warning she spun around, and made a mad dash for the door. Not daring to look back.

But she couldn't make it far before she was stopped by yet another small group passing through those same doors- a pair of OA members, and with them, two other captured characters...

Rin gaped in horror as she recognised the blue-haired meister from earlier, only to see the bullet wounds the mass murderers had left him covered in. Leaving him clearly incapable of walking on his own, the grunts were practically dragging his pain-wracked body into the building. As for his female counterpart, the same had been done to her, only her spirits were probably broken at least twice as hard.

The grunt who'd captured Rin sighed. "Now why'd you do that?" he asked the other two. "If you insist on making such a mess with your captures like that, why do you even bother bringing them in to be killed here? You might as well just handle that part yourselves..." he shook his head sadly.

"Wh-what?" Rin stuttered, her terrified gaze shifting back and forth between the OA members and the other captured characters. The horrifying truth of what she'd just heard kept ringing in her ears. _They kill the people they bring here. _she thought terrifiedly. _They kill them, and they'll kill me, too..._ Her mind saturated with raw fear, she couldn't say anything else, she couldn't run, as her legs were so tensed up they refused to move. She couldn't even...

She was pulled out of her nightmarish fantasies only when she felt the OA member grab her by the wrist, pulling her towards him, and forceably cuffing her wrists behind her back. There was no way she could be trusted to follow along without having to be restrained any longer.

Rin had reached a state of absolute panic. "L-Let go of me!" she pleaded, struggling fruitlessly. "You can't do this!" _I'm gonna die. _she kept repeating to herself in her head, tears beginning to stream down her face. She didn't want to admit it, but she knew there was no escape. _I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die... _

"And as for you two," the grunt continued, turning to the men who'd brought in the meister and his weapon. "Ending their lives _cleanly _with the rest of the characters seems pointless by now... you might as well just take them outside and finish them off there."

"Oi, you can't get rid of me that easily!" the clearly already-defeated assassin spoke up. Though it seemed to cause him pain just to lift his head high enough to glare at them all. "You thought you could off me that easily, did you? Well I could never be taken down by the likes of you! I'm the man who surpasses God! I'm-" his rant ended with him violently coughing up his own blood, his injuries clearly getting the better of him.

"Black Star..." his partner whispered silently, her face already covered in tears.

The OA member with a grip on Black Star sighed. "Alright then. You two, back outside." he ordered, forcefully dragging the two of them back outdoors. It would be the last Rin, or anyone else, ever saw of them.

"As for you, come with me." the grunt holding onto Rin ordered, dragging her in the opposite direction.

Rin didn't even try to struggle anymore. She couldn't. She didn't have the strength. And even if she did, she'd probably just wind up like Black Star, shot down in a violent end... but how different would that be from what awaited her? She didn't have many options other than keeping her head down as the OA member led her into another hallway, where some of the holding cells were located.

And the site that awaited her there... made her feel naseous. There were just... so many... characters...

It was then she realized what sort of awful genocide she was about to become a victim of.

* * *

><p>Len had been uneasy for the whole ride over. There was nothing for him to do but sit there in one lonely corner of the van, with no windows to look out of so he'd know where he was headed, or to make sure the otakus and the gang were still following... no, wait, they had ninjas, and they needed to stay hidden from the OA members, so then Len wouldn't exactly be able to watch them, huh?<p>

And on _that _subject... poor nervous vocaloid had no idea of even knowing if the girls were still on his trail! Of course... he trusted them... most of them, at least... but, you never know! Maybe OA had planned for this sort of thing and made the path hard to follow... it was a possibility! And if the girls and ninjas had lost track of him... he'd have no way of knowing until it was too late. What a lovely thought.

So busy imagining worst-case scenarios, Len hadn't even noticed that the van had come to a stop.

"Don't make us force you out of there..." the sound of a very impatient-sounding OA grunt pulled him out of his thoughts. His head snapped up, and he turned to see the back of the van being opened up, and the OA member who'd captured him waiting to see if he'd continue to follow along like a good little character...

"O-oh!" Len spoke up. "Y-yeah... I'm coming..." he quickly got to his feet and exited the van as quickly as possible, eager to leave the creepy vehicle behind... it worried him just how many characters had been brought to their tragic ends shortly after riding in one of those vans...

Turning around, Len gulped as soon as he took notice of the building. _I-it's bigger than I thought it would be... _

"Do we attack yet?" Grace whispered eagerly.

"Not yet..." Taylor mused, still watching the scene closely. Or at least trying to. Her eyes kept drifting to the massive OA building... not that she could help it.

Sasuke scoffed. _Len's alone with a single OA member and no one else is around. It's the perfect time to attack, what is she waiting for?_

"Come on," the grunt ordered aggressively, grabbing Len by his shirt collar and dragging him towards the entrance.

Len was beginning to panic, at least a little. Of course, he was being taken into OA, he had every right to panic! He desperately hoped that a ninja would show up and do something to save him any second now... any second now...

"Ok! Now!" Taylor commanded, before all the ninjas leaped from their perches, bounding down into OA's parking lot.

As they landed, they weren't so worried about stealth. Because as soon as the middle-aged OA grunt had time to so much as spin around, Itachi had hit a pressure point in his neck, causing him to immediately slump to the ground, unconcious.

"Ohmygodthankyou!" Len cheered, unbelievably relieved to the point of sputtering out words in a barely-intelligable response, glomping Itachi and rubbing his face against his chest, almost to the point of eyes watering with joy.

"Oh yes... the ground... solid ground beneath my feet... I missed you..." Alyssa mused, nearly giddy to be on ground level again, not having to worry about what could happen to her if she lost her grip on Sasuke for even a second...

Itachi looked down at the blonde hugging him skeptically. "...You honestly thought we might not come for you?" he asked.

"W-Well, um, I was worried, that, maybe, you lost track of the van while it was taking me here, and-"

"Hey, now's not the time and place for this!" Sasuke reminded everyone. They could get caught at any second. "Follow me." the Uchiha commanded before quickly running back into the surrounding undergrowth, the others following. "We wouldn't want to get spotted after having made it this far."

Once safely hidden again, Grace and the rest of the team couldn't help but gaze at the dreadfully incredible OA building. "Wow... even bigger than I thought!" Grace mused.

"That's exactly what I was thinking..." Len added quietly, not exactly sounding pleased about it.

"So um... if I have this right... we were gonna attack after this? Take down OA and stuff?" Alyssa asked unsurely. That had indeed been the plan, but... none of them imagined OA as being this big. That plan didn't look so fathomable anymore...

Taylor sighed. "Well... yeah, that's still the plan. We'll go in there and... give it a try. If anything, this'll be a good way to learn how they work, exactly, and how strong they are..." she continued. "Even though we... probably won't be able to wipe them out completely this time around." she quietly added truthfully.

Gaara nodded. "Us ninjas are strong and should be able to handle them... so there's no reason not to."

"YEAH!" Grace cheered, fist in the air. "NOW I CAN FINALLY BEAT ALL THEIR ASSES FOR WHAT THEY DID TO IKUTO!" she stood up from where she'd been crouching in the bushes, absolutely, positively **fired up**, and ready to fight. "LET'S GO!" And without hesitation, she charged strait towards the building.

Sasuke sighed. "I refuse to be held responsible if she gets herself killed in there..." he muttered.

* * *

><p>AN- Happy Easter everyone~~ Hope you liked this chapter... Fishy stayed up till almost 2AM making it for you... =w=

I also feel pretty accomplished- for once I wasn't looking back at the thread every two seconds while writing this. Honestly I'm impressed with myself. ^^


	15. The Attack Begins

Warning: New Glomp! chapter is longer than Longcat. By that I mean it's like 3-4 times larger than the average chapter.

Jussoyano.

* * *

><p>Itachi grabbed the neck of Grace's shirt as she started to run off, forceably pulling her back to the rest of the group. "Grace..."<p>

"Owie!" the hyper otaku squeaked, not expecting her enthusiasm to be cut down so harshly. "What was that for?"

"Grace, you can't just dive in with no plan, especially without any way of defending yourself." The Uchiha told her.

Gaara nodded. "He's right. We're dealing with murdurers here..."

Grace crossed her arms and pouted. "Fiiiiine we'll think up a plan first... who has a good idea?"

"I say," Taylor spoke up. "That we should at least split up into teams of two, each one of us weaker ones partnered with someone who can protect us-"

"I CALL GAARA!" Grace interrupted enthusiastically, grabbing the sand ninja's wrist and holding their hands in the air together to show their partnership.

"...Ok, well then, Grace is with Gaara... and Itachi is mine." she assured everyone, though it's not like anyone else had the intention of pairing up with him...

"And as for the rest of us...?" Alyssa spoke up, trying to get the rest of the team back on topic.

"Uh... you're with Sasuke, I guess." Taylor answered, shrugging.

"But I don't wanna be with Sasuke!" Alyssa argued without a moment's hesitation. "He tried to kill me this morning! If things get bad in there he'll probably abandon me without even feeling any guilt!" she protested.

Sasuke looked away, indifferently. "Hn."

Taylor sighed. "Fine. Alyssa, I guess you can join me and Itachi's group. Len will have to go in with Sasuke."

"M-me?" Len stuttered. He hadn't gotten to know Sasuke very well in the small amount of time since he'd joined their group, and well really all he'd seen Sasuke do was try to kill people, and more for his own benefit than anything else. "I'm not sure if I trust him, either..." he glanced nervously at Itachi, who, although still quite intimidating, he still liked more than Sasuke.

Taylor rubbed her temples in annoyance. "Ugh, fine. So Grace is with Gaara; myself, Itachi, Alyssa and Len are in a group together; and Sasuke is by himself." she recapped. "Is everyone alright with that?"

Everyone nodded.

"Ok, good..." Taylor then looked back at the looming black building in front of them. The Operation Anime headquarters. The place where Ikuto was killed... "Ok then... time to attack, right?"

Sasuke nodded. "I have the keys." he reported, holding up what appeared to be a set of keys to the building.

Taylor spun around and looked at him in astonishment. "When did you get those!?" she asked, shocked.

"I took them from the OA member we knocked out." he answered simply.

"...Oh..." Taylor responded, feeling like an idiot.

The small band of otakus and characters quickly snuck across the parking lot and to the back entrance, waiting in nervousness and anticipation for Sasuke to unlock the door. They opened the door slowly, and saw that it was pretty dark on the inside. Apparently it was the entrance to a hallway that wasn't used much, and the lights were off.

"We're in luck... this looks like a part of the buidling that isn't in use..." Taylor whispered aloud. "Which means it should be easier to get in and sneak around for a bit without any trouble." she concluded.

"So basically we split up at the next fork in the road and see what we can find in here?" Alyssa asked.

"Yeah," Taylor replied. "Shouldn't be too hard or dangerous. From what we've seen, these guys are super weak. And we have the ninjas..."

Alyssa nodded. "I see..."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Rin had no choice but to sit helplessly in her cell and wait for her fate to be brought upon her. She glanced at the holding cells that lined the wall across from her- the majority of them held characters but it was hard to see some of them from her current position. Directly across from her though was someone who looked about her age, if not just a bit older; a white-haired boy with... no shoes? Odd. Also he seemed to have a habit of playing with the curls of his hair.<p>

_He doesn't seem all that scared... _Rin observed. _Maybe if I ask around, I'll get a better idea of what's going on... _"H-hey! You there!" she asked the boy in front of her, trying to get his attention. After he calmly lifted his head and looked in her direction, she continued. "Um... do you... have any idea what's going on here?" she asked timidly. "I mean, where we are and why this is happening to us?"

The young albino paused, as if considering exactly how to answer. "Well, I could be wrong about this, but from what I've gathered..." he turned to face her better, still twirling his hair absentmindedly. "We are in a world that is not our own. And, for some reason, beings from many alternate worlds are being brought to this one enexplicably, which would explain why there's such a... diverse group of people here." he explained, glancing at the cells surrounding the two of them. In them were characters whose outfits suggested various nationalities and from varying time eras, even. And most notably _so many exotic hair colors. _Sure, his theory would've sounded farfetched, but, so did a lot of what he did back in his own world.

Rin nodded slowly, still taking it in. It would explain how she suddenly found herself in an unfamiliar woodland, at least...

"And..." the white-haired boy continued. "It would seem that these men that captured us are part of an organization that exists in this world, attempting to 'clean up' their world by... eliminating the extra beings coming into it." he finished sadly, but calmly.

"So they're just going to... kill us all?" Rin asked fearfully, her body beginning to shake. It was clear that's what happened to Black Star, but...

The albino nodded. "It would seem so, yes. I for one have already seen several characters die here..."

"It's true..." a young blonde added, a sad tone in his voice. "Despicable, but true. How people can simply allow this to happen though is just..." he trailed off, a shadow covering his eyes.

Rin looked down at the ground, eyes wide, body trembling, still trying to take in everything this boy was telling her. _Everyone who comes here dies... _she contemplated. _We all appear here randomly, get captured, and killed... _Suddenly, a burst of panic shot through her, as her worst suspicions were starting to be confirmed. "W-wait a minute!" she cried out. "What about anyone from our own world who's already vanished? Where have they gone?" she asked desperately, mind returning to Len and Miku, who were already known to have disappeared before she herself was transported into this other world. Eyes beginning to water, she asked again, though she feared she already knew the answer. "What happened to them?!"

The detective sighed, before looking back at Rin. "I, too, had noticed some disappearances before I wound up here. Though, if my theory about the current situation is correct, then the odds that all those who disappeared are now dead is near-definite." he explained monotonously. "I'm sorry." he added.

Rin knew that would be his answer, but she still couldn't bring herself to accept it. "N-no..." she whispered pathetically, drawing her hand over her mouth, tears streaking down her face. _He can't be right... he can't be... _she thought desperately, crawling backwards towards the back wall of the cell. _If he is... then that means Len, since he vanished two days ago, was dead this whole time... oh Len, if only we could've done something! _she thought hopelessly, despair beginning to creep into every corner of her mind, as she sobbed out of her own fear and lamented over Len as far from the front of the cell as possible. _And now... I'm next. I'll be killed the same way. And there's no way I can be rescued, because I'll only be another disappearance, like Len...! _With all her emotions raging inside her, Rin had nothing she could do other than weep.

As Rin continued to lament over her brother's death and fear for her own, an OA member appeared down the hall, and in his hands, one of the poison-filled syringes. All the characters held their breath. The killings were not done in any order. It was not first-come first-serve. It was completely arbitrary, and whoever was unlucky enough to catch an OA worker's eye was the next to go. Everyone stayed perfectly still as they waited for the killer to pick his next victim, as everyone feared over whether they were next, or if they would live, just to see a few more killings...

* * *

><p>After the band of otakus and characters split up, Grace immediately went into (somewhat) serious mode. She walked boldly down the halls in search of... well really anything, with a look of determination on her face that almost suggested she existed for more than just comic relief. ...Though, she still had her hand tightly grasping Gaara's wrist, dragging him along behind her.<p>

_She's almost like a different person now... _Gaara contemplated, looking in every direction Grace wasn't just to make sure they would see any attack coming. _If only she'd stop dragging me..._

Suddenly, the silence that had previously filled the halls was replaced by the high-pitched shriek of the otaku girl, who then in fear frantically ran and hid behind her ninja protector.

"What? What is it!?" Gaara asked, looking in every direction possible and trying to find any cause for alarm, but he sensed nothing...

"SPIDER!" Grace answered, pointing at the tiny arachnid on the floor in front of them, barely even visible in the dim lighting.

Gaara sighed and shot her a glare. "A spider is nothing to scream over... keep screaming like that and you'll attract attention..."

"Sorry..." Grace mumbled apologetically, still behind her ninja.

The two of them kept walking, but even after the spider had been avoided Gaara was still hearing expressions of fear, which was quite annoying. "And stop that whimpering, too..." he told her.

"Um, that's not me..." Grace spoke up timidly.

The two of the immediately stopped walking. Listening closely, it was then revealed to them that the whimpering that the sand ninja had heard was actually that of multiple voices. And to add to that it wasn't just whimpering, either. The voices they heard were more accurately... far-off screams.

No words needed to be exchanged for them to both know what they were hearing. They proceeded forward again with a bit more haste, but also more caution.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Taylor, Itachi, Alyssa and Len made their way into the OA base from a different direction.<p>

"I wonder if the guy behind all this is watching us right now... laughing at us..." Taylor wondered aloud.

"You mean like on a security camera or something?" Alyssa asked, before spinning her head around in search of one somewhere. Of course the very thought of one hadn't once crossed her mind...

"There are no cameras." Itachi stated simply, scanning the halls, sharingan activated.

"Really?" Taylor asked. "Odd..."

"Maybe the organization is still young, and they haven't had the chance to install any yet?" Alyssa guessed.

"I sure hope they haven't had time to do much yet..." Len muttered quietly from the back of the group.

Wandering through the empty halls, they came across a number of rooms with the lights off inside and the doors locked, so who knows what was beyond them, if anything. Eventually though, they came across a room clearly labeled as "records room".

"Aha! A door that might actually take us somewhere..." Taylor thought aloud. Though, she was nearly positive she already knew what she would find when she tried to- oh look the door's unlocked! "And it's open..." the otaku commented.

"Then what are you standing there waiting for?" Alyssa asked rhetorically, before walking past her friend and entering the room first. "Now let's see if we can find a light switch..." she mused, feeling the walls of the dark room for one. "Let there be light!" she chirped upon flipping the switch up, making the inside of the room visible.

"Records room" was probably a good way to label the place, looking at the large amounts of papers and folders that covered the shelves, a bit less organized than they could be, and a printer and fax machine.

"Well, this is as good a place as any to start gathering information." Taylor decided. "Itachi, you stand watch while the rest of us see what we can find in here."

Itachi nodded and proceeded to stand just outside the door, sharingan still activated.

Meanwhile the girls (and Len) started poking around to see what they could find.

* * *

><p>"Hn. Weaklings." Sasuke grunted, a hallway containing nothing more than the bodies of a few OA members behind him. The base was incredibly easy to infiltrate, too bad he hadn't found anything notable enough to report to the girls. What exactly was he looking for, anyway? The Boss, or clues to the Boss, right? The girls weren't very specific. It seemed any sort of information would do.<p>

Oh well. Clearly wandering around not knowing what was expected of him wasn't a problem, as there was no thought in his mind that these pathetic grunts would ever get the upper-hand over him, and so he continued forward into the base.

Grace and Gaara continued their so far fruitless search, until upon turning a corner, Gaara found something rather interesting. "Grace, come look at this..." he called softly in her direction.

"Huh? What is i- oh God!" Grace exclaimed as soon as she caught up to Gaara, and both of them gazed at the hallway in front of them, lined with, what appeared to be, holding cells, though none of them in use. "Is this where they plan on keeping the characters?" she asked, sounding astonished. There were so many cells, she had a hard time visualizing them all filled with anime characters who'd been captured.

Gaara narrowed his eyes. "Either that, or that's where they already _have _kept some characters... temporarily." he replied grimly. _They may not have killed many characters since we last heard about them, but with facilities this big, surely they've done more... _he contemplated. _Why do I have such a bad feeling... _Then, cutting the Kazekage off from his thoughts, he sensed a rather familiar chakra signature.

And then, the two of them heard gunshots.

Gaara immediately stiffined, Grace jumped slightly and let out a small gasp, debating whether or not to hide behind Gaara again. "Wh-what was that?" she asked.

"I sense Sasuke's chakra signature." Gaara reported quickly. "I think OA opened fire on him."

As if on cue, the two figures that came bounding around the nearest corner were Sasuke, who appeared unharmed, and a clearly injured OA member, struggling to get away. Before Grace and Gaara even had time to react, Sasuke flung a well-placed kunai at the back of the man's neck, causing him to slump to the ground, life as good as over.

"S-Sasuke!" Grace stuttered, clearly upset. "What did we tell you about killing!?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the girl, sharingan still blaring, clearly annoyed. "He shot at me first." he deadpanned. _If this girl is going to yell at me about every human life lost, especially on the enemy side, then I don't know how she expects to accomplish a thing. _

Gaara sighed. "Grace, you have to keep in mind, that man was a murderer, too, and they'll try to kill us if we don't fight back against them." Gaara explained. "And others, as well. Don't forget that."

Sasuke nodded, eyes fading back to their usual, darker look. "Which reminds me, Grace..." Sasuke began. "Something occurred to me while I was searching this place- what _exactly _are we even supposed to be looking for?" he asked, clearly annoyed by the girls' lack of leadership and planning skills. Why the hell was he even taking orders from them, anyway? ...Oh yeah, they were his only chance of getting back home. What a troublesome predicament.

"Um... I dunno." Grace answered.

Gaara facepalmed.

"I guess... we're just supposed to be looking for the Boss, or something." Grace further explained... sort of.

Sasuke sighed. "Alright then... that's what I thought..." _She doesn't have a clue what she's doing._

"And, since you're here, we might as well travel in a group of three the rest of the way, right?" Grace suggested.

Sasuke didn't seem very fond of the idea, but with no sense of direction in the task he'd been given, or much motivation, he supposed he might as well just follow after the annoying otaku. "...Fine."

"Yay!" Grace cheered. "Onward!" she called out enthusiastically, charging forward, as the two ninjas followed behind, a bit... less enthusiastically.

"I feel bad for you," Sasuke spoke quietly to Gaara, so Grace wouldn't hear. "Having to put up with that girl all the time... she's probably the worst of the three."

* * *

><p>"Sir, we've been infiltrated..." an OA worker spoke up timidly, in the relative darkness of the Boss' main headquarters.<p>

"I know that, you idiot." the Boss sighed, rubbing his temples. "I want to know how."

"W-well..." the grunt trembled, unsure of how to answer. "We're really not sure." he spoke quickly. "Perhaps-"

"You don't know?!" the Boss roared, standing up and glaring at his henchman. "I don't want anyone, _especially_ not that band of anime-loving geeks, to interrupt these operations!"

"S-sir, please calm down!" another one of his men begged. "I assure you the situation is under control; we'll make sure to capture every member of this renegade party right away and-"

"No." the Boss stopped them, growing calm again, sitting back down. "Right now, just eliminate all the characters we currently have as quickly as possible."

"But sir..." the grunt protested. "Why are you letting the girls and their characters get away with the attack?"

"We cannot attack the girls, firstly." their leader quickly answered. "They're not like the characters. They're from this world. We cannot simply murder them." he explained. "Secondly... we're not prepared to face them right now. So for now, just don't let them escape with any more characters. Kill them all before they get the chance. Let them see what we're capable of... and they won't want to come back. They wouldn't dare bother us again. Then, we can finish off their little group when we're fully prepared."

"Y-yes sir!" the grunt stammered. "I'll make sure everyone knows."

* * *

><p>Len jumped when he heard the slightest unexpected sound penetrate the silence the group was previously submerged in, and the vocaloid instinctively held his breath, bracing himself for a wave of OA members to appear out of nowhere and-<p>

"Len... chill... it's just the fax machine..." Alyssa spoke up, reassuring the blonde that there was nothing to worry about. She couldn't help but noticed how unnerved he looked... but then, she really couldn't blame him for that. After all, he'd experienced enough of OA for a while...

"Oh..." Len let out a sigh of relief. "I guess I'm just nervous is all..."

"Speaking of the fax, though..." Taylor then commented, eyeing the machine. "This looks like a good place to start if we wanna get inside OA's mind. And it certainly seems more interesting and productive than searching through all the files they already have lying around." Taylor stated, picking up the several-page document that had just been printed out.

"Ooooooh what's it about?" Alyssa asked curiously.

"Shh. I'm reading." Taylor silenced her, looking over the list of... names? Yes, names. She hadn't recognized some of them at first, but upon closer examination it was clear it was a list of characters' names, organized by the anime they were from. Taylor squinted in confusion for a moment, as if trying to figure out exactly what she was reading, though after looking at the page a bit more thorougly... "O-oh god..." Taylor whispered in shock, eyes widening at the revelation.

"What? What is it?" Alyssa persisted, her voice a mix of now not only curiosity but also concern.

Taylor swallowed thickly. "Look;" she held the list out to her friend and pointed at some small print at the top of the page. "'Characters Eliminated'," Taylor read, her voice growing shakey as she tried not to freak out. "Do you know what that means? This is an up-to-date list of the dead."

"**Wh-what!?**" Alyssa and Len screamed in unison. Even Itachi seemed to poke his head into the room ever so slightly.

"B-but there's so many!" Alyssa exclaimed, flipping through the pages, skimming over all the names...

"I-is there anyone I know in there?" Len asked hesitantly, sounding terribly worried about what the answer could be.

"Wait, lemmie see..." Alyssa replied, going back to the start of the list and reading from there. The otaku quickly discovered that the animes were listed alphabetically, and she was _going _to search under 'V' for 'Vocaloid' but... got distracted. "Oh... Misa-Misa's dead, and Near..." she commented, looking under Death Note. "No one else though... um... Oh wow, they got a good number of Hetalia characters though. France, Romano, Greece, Belarus, Norway, damn..."

Taylor gasped. "They killed Norge and Romano? Well at least France is dead..."

"Eto..." Len spoke up timidly. "Please tell me there's not-"

"Aww! They got Finny from Kuroshitsuji! But he was so cute!" Alyssa wailed.

"Gimmie that!" Taylor ordered, snatching the papers back from her. "I wanna see which Naruto characters they've killed..." she mused, quickly scanning that section. "Oh great, there's a lot here, too..." the otaku commented, starting to feel sick from seeing so many dead. "Hm... Gai Moto... oh no, not Konan and Hidan!" she cried.

Itachi poked his head into the room. "What?"

"Ugh... they got your partner, too, Itachi..." she informed him, seeing Kisame's name on the list. "And... oh damn, Orochimaru?" she asked aloud. _Maybe they're a bit stronger than we first took them for... _"And... aww... poor Kankuro..." _I wonder what Gaara will do when he finds out about that... _she thought sadly.

"Lemmie see that again!" Alyssa called out, taking the list back. Continuing to skim, she caught sight of another familiar title. "What? Pokemon counts as an anime here?" she asked, the title standing out to her in the list. "Hm... well, they got Dawn, and Ghetsis..."

"Alyssa, Taylor, c-can I-"

"Wait," Taylor then took the list back, again. "Did they kill anyone else from Shugo Chara?" she then continued to skim through the list, searching for the right anime title. "Hm... Tadase and... Ugh damn them! They killed Nagi!" she raged.

"Hey I wanna check the Soul Eater characters!" Alyssa exclaimed as she snatched the list back, again searching for the right title, to see which names were-

"HEY!" Len suddenly spoke up, catching the girls' attention, and grabbing the list for himself. "While the two of you keep worrying about whether or not your fangirl crushes are still alive, I'm worried about people I actually know and care about!" he yelled, eyes watering, as the rest of the room went into a stunned silence. "I just want to make sure none of my friends or family are dead, is that too much to ask!?"

The room was silent for a few more seconds, before Taylor finally spoke up. "...You're right, Len. Of course you can look at the list. Sorry we... got a bit carried away..."

"Th-thank you..." Len replied quietly, nervously skimming the list for the right title. He was nearly positive no one he knew was there, he just had to make sure... he had to be absolutely positive everyone he knew was safe... he couldn't take the fear of uncertainty. Eyes racing across the list, now wrinkled and crumpled from the otakus grabbing it from each other so many times, Len quickly looked under 'V' for 'Vocaloid', desperately searching for the names of anyone that...

Len gasped, his eyes watered as he repeatedly read over the name in front of him. He had feared, ever since he found out about OA, that they might hurt someone he loved, but he never really thought about what would happen if they actually succeeded, how he would react. The vocaloid fell to his knees, overwhelmed with emotion at the sight of the name 'Miku Hatsune' typed neatly onto the list. "N-no..." he whispered, still in shock. He didn't expect anyone he knew to actually be on that list. He couldn't bring himself to imagine it. "They actually did it... they killed her..." At first, Len wasn't sure what to feel. Upset? Vengeful? All he could do was remain swamped in disbelief, but after reading the name for the twentieth time, he began to accept it. "Just a few days ago, everyone was together, and nothing was wrong..." he began, as tears started pouring out of his eyes. "Now all of a sudden... Miku is dead..." he choked out between sobs, wiping his tears with his sleeve.

Taylor sighed, placing her hand on Len's shoulder. "It's alright, Len..." she told him. "I promise you, whoever is in charge of this is going to die... a slow, and painful death..." she finished vengefully.

However, the comforting moment didn't last long, as the relative silence of the area was broken by the shouts of an OA member.

_"Huh? How did a rogue character get in- urgh!"_

"Itachi! What's going on out there?" Taylor called.

The Uchiha poked his head into the room again. "We were spotted just now. I took out the man who saw us, but, we should get a move on soon. We need to finish what we came for and get out." he told them.

"Right..." Taylor nodded. _It would be easier if I knew what we came here for... Well, these guys are way better killers than we thought. We should just find the others and get out. _"Well, Itachi, you've got your sharingan and you can fight and all, so, you should probably lead." the otaku instructed. She then looked down at Len, his eyes still red... "Len, we have to go now." she told him. "If we're found out, then they'll try to capture us, and..."

"I understand," Len replied dully, standing up, folding the list of names so it would be small enough to tuck away in his sleeve. "We should get out of here soon, before anyone else gets hurt..."

Alyssa nodded, silently following the rest of the group out of the room. She was still worried about Len, though... he still seemed awfully upset about what happened to Miku. If only she was any good at consoling people... the otaku let out a long sigh instead.

* * *

><p>Rin sat curled up in a fearful little ball in a dark corner of her cell. Everyone was being killed off one by one, and she couldn't do a thing to stop it. She could only sit and watch. The white-haired boy who seemed barely older than her- they killed him. She watched as he struggled, faced with a death sentence he did nothing to earn, but to no avail. <em>I'll die just like him. <em>she repeated over and over in her head, tears streaming down her face. _There's no one here to rescue me. Or any of us. Len died here. Miku died here. We'll all die here..._

Between her own quiet sobs and the cries and pleas of the other characters taken prisoner, the vocaloid then heard the nearby voices of a pair of OA workers, consulting about their work.

"Just got orders from the Boss," one spoke up. "We have to get rid of the last of these characters as fast as we can. Apparently we've been broken into, and we can't let the attackers get away with any of these prisoners." he explained.

Rin's head perked up slightly. There was someone in here trying to free the characters before they were killed...?

"Broken into?" the second grunt, a female, echoed. "By whom?"

"I don't know the details," the other answered. "But from what I've gathered, it seems to me that it's a group of renegade characters, plus some fans of theirs who are actually part of this world." he explained. "I guess they're trying to 'save the characters' or something."

Growing curious about what was going on, Rin slowly crawled towards the front of her cell, peeking out from between the bars, listening closely. _Someone's in here trying to rescue us? _

"Tch. Those naive kids." the woman spat. "They just don't understand the situation, do they?"

"Hmph, either way..." he looked towards the long hallway ahead of him, several of the cells still filled. "We better kill off all these characters right away." the grunt then pulled out his gun, making sure he had enough bullets to finish off those that remained.

"Oh? No time to even do this neatly, then?" the female asked.

"Guess not."

Rin immediately scrambled back to the darkest corner of her cell; trying to make herself small, hidden, unnoticed. _Why do we have to be killed like this? What's wrong with letting us live!? _As she continued to cower, sounds like the click of holding cells being unlocked, a character's last screams, and gunshots grew nearer and nearer.

"I guess we'll come back for the bodies later." one grunt spoke casually. "Important thing is that they're all dead, right?"

Rin began sobbing madly again, listening to every last voice that was silenced, terrified for her life. "N-no..." she whimpered helplessly. "I don't... want... to die..." she gasped between sobs.

* * *

><p>Len, Alyssa, Taylor and Itachi all heard the gunshots, and their bodies all stiffined. They were close. Unsettlingly close. Listening more closely, they then heard the terrified screams that accompanied them.<p>

Len swallowed thickly. "Th-they're... killing characters over there... we can hear them..." he whispered fearfully, shaking. _So that's what genocide sounds like... _

Taylor nodded slowly, somewhat stunned by it herself. "Y-yeah... Itachi, we should head over there." she told him quickly, thinking of all the characters that were dying as they stood there. "Save anyone that's left..."

Itachi nodded, hurrying ahead towards the source of the sound, the girls following, abeit Len quite hesitantly. He was lagging behind, clearly not wanting to press forward, slowly continuing nervously ahead.

"Ugh! Wait you guys!" Alyssa called back to the other two, noticing that Len wasn't following as enthusiastically. "Why so slow, Len?" she asked, urging him forward.

"I don't think I want to rush strait into where the killing is taking place..." he mumbled. "I'd rather stay back here where it's safe and sound and I don't have to worry about getting shot..."

"If you stay behind there's only a better chance you'll get captured! Or worse!" Alyssa urged. "It's best to stay with the ninjas, yes? Now come on!" she persisted, grabbing Len's wrist and dragging him towards the sounds of chaos.

* * *

><p>"Hey, don't try to pretend I can't see you back there." the female OA member spoke up in an irritated tone.<p>

Rin's head immediately perked up, and her eyes widened in horror at the sight of the OA member standing in front of her cell, unlocking it, and preparing to end her life. "N-n-n-no...!" Rin whimpered fearfully, pressing herself up against the cell's back wall. "Don't... don't do this!" she begged. "You can't! You can't! I don't deserve this! I..." Rin stopped herself as she realized she sounded no different than all the others. And certainly, none of them were saved. "No... no..." eyes still watering, and tremendous amounts of fear building up inside her, all she could manage to do was close her eyes tightly, and let out one, final scream of defiance. "_NOOOOOOOOOO!"_

* * *

><p>Len's eyes snapped open, and he immediately pried himself away from Alyssa, the otakus perked their heads up, too, and Itachi following suit. Alyssa's eyes grew wide with worry. <em>Oh god... I swear that sounded like... <em>

"R-RIN-SAN!" Len gasped. Those were his sister's screams, mixed in with those of all the rest. _Nonononono... What's she doing here? She's not supposed to be here! _his mind raced. _And then what if she's... she can't be... _"Oh no... R-Rin!" he called out in sudden panic, immediately shoving past the otakus and Itachi. _I have to make sure she's still ok... I have to, I have to... _Those were the only thoughts in his mind; the rest of the group completely blocked out. All that mattered to him was protecting the person he cared more about than anyone else in the world.

The vocaloid bounded down the hallway, and turned the nearest corner to the hall in the building where the screams were heard from. The first thing Len saw was a sad sight- one of the characters who'd been just unlucky enough to have been killed seconds before the rescuers arrived. The boy who now lay dead in his cell had been shot in the head, white eyes still wide open, blood splattered all over his hair, face and clothes. Len stumbled back at the unexpected sight, the grotesque image enough to make him gag, almost even grow dizzy.

Once he'd regained his balance and focus, he looked ahead at the hallway in front of him, and once more froze up in fear and panic. There was one character who remained alive in the hall, and they were currently sitting helplessly in their cell, bracing themselves for their impending death as the OA grunt held her at gunpoint, ready to shoot in mere seconds.

If Len didn't do something right away, Rin would die. _Oh god, what do I do!? _Len began to panic again, frozen there, desperately trying to think of something. Time seemed to slow down for him. The consequences of what he could think of within these next few seconds were unimaginable. _WhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdow hatdoIdoWHATDOIDO!?_

Making an impulsive, split-second decision, the faithful younger brother quickly went with the only possible way to save Rin that he saw. He charged forward at the murderer as fast as he could possibly move, and, hoping and praying for the best, ran into her and tackled her to the ground.

The gun was fired the moment the two of them collided. Len felt his heart stop for a moment once more, as he spun his head around in search of Rin, just to make sure the bullet missed. Len let out a sigh of relief upon seeing he'd managed exactly what he intended. The bullet missed. Rin was still ok.

Rin immediatly stood up at this most shocking turn of events. Not only was she still alive, but, somehow, so was her brother! "Len!" she gasped, eyes wide. "Y-You're alive?!"

Unfortunately, it was not yet time for celebration. The grunt whom Len had managed to knock onto the floor swiftly shoved Len off of her with a shake of the leg and a kick to the chest. While the vocaloid was still clutching his chest in pain, the wind knocked out of him, the woman quickly got to her feet again, absolutely infuriated.

"You insolent anime twerp!" she raged, continuously kicking Len while he was down, mostly to the chest and stomach, and even delivering one forceful kick to the face. "How dare you pull something like that! Where did you even escape from!" she kept asking, clearly enraged.

Rin stood by, speechless, as Len was so brutally beat up. While she may have still been in shock, she just barely managed to pull together the courage to stand up to this menace. "W-wait!" she begged, stepping forward, tears still in her eyes.

"Don't move!" the OA member quickly stopped her, drawing her gun and aiming at Rin once more. "My orders were to eliminate you, and I still intend to do just that!"

"N-no, don't..." Len spoke up weakly, sitting up from his position on the floor, clearly still in pain, a large, dark bruise beginning to form on his left cheekbone. "Please... don't hurt her!" he pleaded, coughing up blood. "Let her live! I'm begging you!"

"Len..." Rin whispered, taken aback by her brother's strong desire to save her own life, no matter what happens to himself!

The grunt seemed puzzled for a moment, but that look of confusion quickly turned to a confident smirk. "Fine then," she agreed, before shutting the door to Rin's cell once more. "She'll live a bit longer..." the OA member told Len, before resting her foot on his chest, pressing him down to the ground again. "Because then I'll have time to kill you first!"

Rin retreated to the back of her cell, hands clamped tightly over her mouth in shock. This madwoman was going to shoot Len. She couldn't watch!

So it turned out Len's plan wouldn't work after all. He'd only granted Rin a few extra minutes, if that. And now, they'd both be killed. He desperately looked in every direction possible for any way out of the situation, but found none. _Wait a minute... where did Itachi and the girls go? _the thought suddenly came back to Len. _They didn't just leave me to rush into danger, did they...? _But, alas. From the looks of things, he'd been abandoned in this place.

"Well then..." the female grunt continued, loading her gun, before aiming at Len, tuning out Rin's helpless sobs. "Your time playing hero is over, character."

Len gazed fearfully down the barrel of the gun, before turning his head towards the sobbing Rin, and then he, too, found himself crying helplessly. The doomed vocaloid looked back at the OA member, fear clouding his entire mind, as he closed his eyes tightly, and braced himself...

...And then all the lights in the building suddenly went out, plunging everyone in the building into near total darkness.

* * *

><p>AN- FISHFLAKES used CLIFFHANGER!

It's super effective!

Er, at any rate, going back into serious mode... I'm very happy to announce that as of quite recently something BIG has happened for Glomp! Just recently, personal friend of mine and major Glomp! fan Katyroo has begun work on a GLOMP! MANGA! That's right, now not only is Glomp! an epic story _and _roleplay, but we now have a visual retelling of the story to further the franchise. This is a huge step for Glomp!, so many thanks to Katyroo for the effort put into this!

Link to the manga below (remove spaces) :

glompthemanga . smackjeeves (dot com) / comics/1483170/glomp-the-manga/

(Reads left to right.)


	16. The Warriors Return Home

A/N- HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS. IT'S AN UPDATE. LIKE SIX MONTHS LATE, BUT AN UPDATE NONETHELESS.

I apologize immensely for the wait. School. Life. Roleplays. Bluh.

At any rate, because I've kept you waiting so long, I *puts on a Sagittarius T-shirt* STRONGLY recommend re-reading the previous chapter. Since it left off on a bit of a cliffhanger, and also because this one connects back to the last so heavily, this current chapter will make more sense and also be more enjoyable to read with chapter 15 fresh in your mind. Also, it helps you savor the meal a bit more. Which is smart since knowing me you probably won't get another chapter for a while. *waits to be hit*

* * *

><p>"Gaaaaaraaaaa!" Grace wailed, glomping the sand ninja from behind.<p>

"What?" he mumbled back irritably. "And stop yelling like that. You'll attract attention."

"Can I ride on your back?" Grace asked innocently, already trying to climb on his gourd.

"Why?" he asked, clearly annoyed.

"Cuz I wannaaaaa….!" Gaara just sighed at the request, allowing the eccentric fangirl to climb onto his back. _Even inside a slaughterhouse like this, she can't stay serious for any longer than a minute. Doesn't she realize she's putting herself in danger? Does she even care? _This girl was certainly an enigma to figure out.

Interrupting his thoughts, the two of them heard the sounds of fighting up ahead, or rather, the sounds of Sasuke quickly and easily taking care of a grunt he'd found; smashing his head into a wall, and watching him slump to the ground. After that was out of the way, the ninja turned his head towards the lone character left in the cell he was headed towards, likely to finish off. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at this unfamiliar man, looking suspiciously back at him. Clearly he was not anyone from his own world, and therefore was of no concern to him. "Grace, Gaara," he called the two of them over, finding this man at least worth reporting. "There's some shirtless guy in here."

"Oi!" the young male in the cell shot back, managing to get to his feet while his hands were still cuffed behind his back. "I have a name, you know, not just 'shirtless guy'." He corrected, now looking down at the, much shorter, ninja. "It's Gray Fullbuster."

"Good for you." Sasuke grunted, uncaring.

"Faster, Gaara!" Grace cheered, happily riding her beloved Kazekage. "Ooh ooh! Sasuke did you find another character?" she asked, unable to see the newcomer clearly from how far behind the two had been lagging.

Gray peeked through the bars of his (still locked) cell at the approaching duo. "…Why is he giving that girl a piggyback ride?" Sasuke honestly did not have an answer to that question.

Grace leaned forwards as far as she could in her current position and squinted at the new character, and as they got closer, she recognized his shirtless figure, and most notably, the signature tattoo on his bare chest. She gasped and nearly fell off her ninja. "Omigosh it's Gray!" she exclaimed, hands over her mouth in surprise.

Gray peered over at the eccentric, unfamiliar girl, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "You know me?"

Grace eagerly scrambled off of the ninja, and ran over to greet the newcomer from outside his cell. "Well, yes! I mean, sort of," she struggled to explain, racing over to meet him. "See, you're in another dimension now! Kinda like Edolas, except, in this dimension, no one from your guild or anyone else you know is real! I mean… they're like, fictional characters to this world, from an anime called Fairy Tail! And these mean people are trying to hunt you down and kill you!" the fangirl rambled. "But I'm so glad we rescued you, because, you're one of my favorites! And I'm so excited to meet you, Gray!"

And the confused ice mage was confused. "…What's an anime?"

"We'll have time to explain the situation better later." Gaara answered plainly. "Right now it's just important we get you out of that cell," he explained, already unlocking it with his sand. "And we should probably start looking for the others soon, too."

Gray was impressed by Gaara's control of sand to undo the locks on both his cell and his handcuffs. "Are you a sand mage?" he asked as he rubbed his wrists, curious.

"…Ninja." Gaara corrected.

"Anyway, Gray, I have a question for you." Grace spoke up, giggling slightly. "Where are your clothes?" she asked.

"Huh?" Gray echoed, looking down at himself and realizing he was suddenly wearing nothing but his underwear. "…When did that happen?" he asked, genuinely surprised he was suddenly naked.

"You took your pants off as soon as we got here." Gaara answered, wondering how it was possible that Gray was unaware, watching the mage retrieve his clothes from the corners of his cell and put them back on.

"Anyway, like Gaara said, we should start looking for the others now." Sasuke spoke up, glaring at the annoying mage. _Why did I have to notice him? _"Any idea where they are?"

"No idea!" Grace chirped, proceeding to hug Gray as soon as he finished redressing. "Hi! I'm Grace by the way! And the redhead is Gaara and the grumpy boy is Sasuke! And he's worse than Natsu in terms of annoyingness!"

Gray blinked skeptically. "Worse than Natsu?"

Grace nodded, wide-eyed. "I know right?"

Both ninjas barely restrained a facepalm.

"Anyway, let's keep moving…." Gaara spoke up, getting everyone moving again.

Though after having traveled barely any additional distance-

"HEY GAARA what's that?" Grace asked, pointing to something she noticed jutting out of one of the walls, and still clinging to her ice mage.

"It looks like a fuse box." the sand ninja replied.

"Oh, like, those things that control the electricity in a building? Or something?" she asked. "Wait don't most people keep those in their basements?"

"Does it matter?" Sasuke asked rhetorically, rubbing his temples, seeing this entire conversation as a huge waste of time. This particular fangirl was getting on his nerves more than any of the others. _Would it kill her to be serious just for once? _

The two ninjas stiffened at the sound of footsteps approaching them. Yet another grunt coming at them, though this one seemed a bit less confident in his ability to take out the intimidating ninjas. Grace stepped a bit timidly behind Gaara, and Gray was just confused, looking to the other group members to see what they would do. The OA member stood there for a moment, unsure of himself, almost stepping back a bit at the sight of the three fighters in front of him. "H-hey… where did you characters… come from…?" he asked timidly, slowly reaching for his gun.

Sasuke glanced at the man- or rather he looked more like a teen- before looking back at Gaara. This one was posing even less of a threat than the rest. "I'll take this one out." He stated plainly, preparing to strike.

"W-wait!" the grunt stammered nervously, quickly drawing his weapon. "I'm armed!"

Not intimidated in the least, Sasuke dashed towards him, and, mind racing and hands shaking, the OA member hastily shot at the ninja, hoping to save his own life, but, missing his target, the bullet just barely missed Sasuke's shoulder, and instead, collided with the fuse box behind them. The device exploded with a shower of sparks…

...And then all the lights in the building suddenly went out, plunging everyone in the building into near total darkness.

* * *

><p>"…<em>Darkneeeeeeeeeeesssssss<em>- ow!" Alyssa mused, before Taylor bonked her on the head.

Taylor let out an irritated sigh. Not only had they made a wrong turn while chasing after Len and completely lost track of where he was, but now the lights had gone out, and to top it all off, Alyssa was being an idiot. "Now what…" she mumbled, rubbing her temples.

"Uhhh… you can see in the dark and stuff with your sharingan, right Itachichi?" Alyssa asked.

"Not really." Itachi grunted, glaring at her slightly for the… new nickname. "Ordinarily I can see chakra, which would work, but for some reason that doesn't work on anyone from outside my world."

_So we don't know where Len is… or how to find him… _she contemplated, fearing for what already could've happened to him with no way of defending himself. She groaned, frustrated with how dark the situation suddenly was- literally.

"Wait," Itachi spoke up. "I sense Sasuke and Gaara nearby. Follow me." He ordered, leading the two night-blind girls, struggling to follow the sound of his footsteps, through the halls.

* * *

><p>The hallway went silent after the shot was fired at Len, and as everything plunged into darkness, time seemed to stand still. Everyone froze where they stood, and all that could be heard was each individual's breathing. One, though, was not frozen out of shock or suspense, but still fear. As he blinked open his eyes to the sudden darkness, yet another layer of dread overcame him. <em>What… what happened? <em>He questioned as the initial surge of panic went through him. _Am I… dead?! _

But even in the darkness, Len could still hear the voice of the woman who'd shot at him. "There." She spoke, still breathing heavily. "You see? You puny, renegade characters don't stand a chance against us. You might as well stop resisting; you're only making things more difficult on yourselves."

Rin sat with her hands covering her mouth in shock, tears streaming slowly down her face. The shot was fired barely a split second after the lights went out, but she could only assume the worst. Overcome with a cyclone of emotions, the vocaloid couldn't utter a single word, or even a whimper. She couldn't even pin herself against the back wall of the cell like most did when Death came their way.

"Now then. It looks like, once again, there's only one character left to…" the grunt paused. Looking around, she realized that she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face. How was she supposed to kill a character she couldn't see? _...Dammit. _She grunted silently. _Just as soon as the back-up power comes on…._

* * *

><p>Itachi stopped, suddenly aware of the sound of footsteps coming around the corner, becoming louder and nearer. "Wait here," Itachi told the girls, approaching the corner. He listened to the footsteps carefully, so that he could follow their movements even in the darkness. He threw a kick at the being that approached him. It hit its mark.<p>

"Ow! What the hell was that for, Itachi?!" Sasuke snarled.

* * *

><p>Len squinted as the lights flickered back on, amazed that he seemed to somehow still be alive. His eyes still adjusting, he noticed that Rin seemed to be doing the same, her eyes wide at the sight of him.<p>

"Ah, there's the power. Took it long enough." The OA member commented, before glancing back down at Len. "Hey, how did you even dodge that?!" She then sighed in irritation. "And only one bullet left." She reflected aloud. "Decisions, decisions…." She mused, scowling at the two of them, deciding who to take down. Her eyes landed on Len. "How about _you _for all the trouble you've caused…"

No chance of running away, Len fearfully braced himself once more, but before the killer even had a chance to raise her gun, another character's voice rang through the hallway.

"_Ice make lance!_"

She spun around instinctively, only to be impaled by several long spears of ice. Her corpse collapsed onto the floor slowly, while the twins could only sit there in shock. For the next few seconds, the only sound to be heard was their heavy breathing. Until, that is, the rest of the group began to appear.

"Omigosh Len are you ok?!" Grace wailed as she raced towards the two, Gray following closely behind, the rest of the group not far off. "We heard gunshots over here and we got worried so me and Gaara and Sasuke and Gray all headed over here but then the lights went out and we couldn't see anything and then Itachi kicked Sasuke and that was actually kind of funny…" she rambled. She gasped as her eyes landed on the second vocaloid. "Oh hi you must be Rin! We've heard so much about you from Len. He's been _so _worried about you this whole time with the whole OA thing going on. That's the whole reason why we came here, cuz Len wanted to save you! Isn't that sweet? I guess it's a good thing we listened, huh?" she ranted. Then, as an afterthought, "Ooh! We have oranges at home. I think. I honestly didn't check. But we probably do. And the same sort of thing calmed Len down after he'd almost died after just getting here so I figured I should at least offer."

Rin's expression of fear quickly turned to one of confusion and what-is-this-girl-talking-about as she listened to Grace go on endlessly, as even the few parts of her rant that stood out to her didn't seem to make any sense. "Wh… what…?"

"S-sorry you should probably check on Len or something he doesn't look so great… Len did you get hurt or something?" Grace asked.

"Oh right!" Rin gasped, crawling over to his side. "Len are you ok? It looked like she kicked you pretty hard…."

While Rin was busy making sure Len was alright, the rest of the group began to gather around. "Whoa… it's Rin…" Taylor commented, wide-eyed.

"Rin?" Itachi echoed.

"Len's sister." Taylor answered. "The one he's been talking about this whole time….?"

"Hn."

Meanwhile, Sasuke looked over the body of the OA woman skeptically, eyebrow raised. _So when _I _kill someone, it's punishable, and yet…._

"Yeah… I-I'm fine…" Len grunted. "Just bruised I think. I'll be fine." He replied. "I'm just so glad we're both still alive." He smiled nervously, overwhelmingly relieved to the point of bursting out in laughter and tears, hugging Rin happily. "Isn't that great?"

Rin nodded, smiling and tearing up as well as she hugged him back. "Y-yeah…" she agreed, both of them just so relieved and happy to both be alive and safe in each other's arms.

The rest of the group gathered around, the majority of them moved by such a touching and miraculous reunion, Alyssa for one barely able to keep herself from squealing after such an intense flood of **feels**, and the only ones unphased were the Uchihas. Even Gaara smiled.

"Uh, as nice of a moment as this is," Gray spoke up. "Don't you think we should get out of here before more troops arrive?"

"Gray is right." Gaara answered quickly, bringing himself back to the important matters at hand. "Come on, I saw an exit over here." He continued, leading the group away.

* * *

><p>Thankfully, OA seemed to be just as shaken by the attack as the otakus and characters were, as they managed to escape the building and retreat at a walking pace without being pursued. The group spent their walk home recollecting themselves and going over what happened during the attack.<p>

"So, other than taking out a few grunts, did anyone actually accomplish anything on this mission?" Sasuke retorted.

"Hey! We rescued Rin and Gray. That's pretty good, right?" Grace spoke up.

"Yes. Two out of a whole slaughterhouse full. How impressive." Sasuke shot back sarcastically.

"Right… so… why were those weirdoes trying to kill us, again?" Gray asked.

Gaara sighed. "Supposedly, they are doing it to keep this world safe by taking out all the 'dangerous' characters flooding into it, which apparently includes all of them. Even the innocent and harmless." He explained distastefully.

Gray's expression soon turned from one of confusion to one of anger and bitter hate. "That's… that's bullshit." He spat, glaring back at the dark building now fading into the distance. "I can't believe they have a whole institution put in place for something like that."

Gaara nodded solemnly.

"So… Len," Alyssa spoke up. "How did you uh….?" she gestured towards the large bruise on his left cheekbone.

"Oh, I was just kicked. Nothing major." He replied sheepishly. "At least I wasn't, you know, shot, or anything, eheheheheh…." He laughed nervously again.

"How _did _you dodge that, anyway?" Rin asked.

"I just sorta rolled out of the way at the last second- when the lights went out." He explained. "I honestly didn't expect it to work though. Heheh."

"So," Gaara spoke up again, getting everyone back on track. "Did anyone learn or discover anything useful?" he asked.

The group went silent for a moment, as they began to realize just how little their mission actually accomplished. The girls especially looked between each other for a bit, wondering if any of them had anything useful to share. "Uh… oh!" Alyssa suddenly remembered. "Taylorlor, did you remember to grab, um… that list?"

"List? What list?" Grace poked her head in.

"O-oh, right…" Taylor replied solemnly, slowly retrieving the folded sheets of paper from her pocket. She glanced at Gaara nervously, remembering that she saw Kankuro's name among the rest of the dead. _I don't know how he'll react to this…._ She thought sadly.

"What is it? What is it?!" Grace pressed on curiously, watching Taylor unfold it.

She sighed. "It's a list of all the characters OA has killed." She watched Grace's expression fade. "We found it mixed in with the rest of their paperwork and such. It's probably not even up-to-date anymore…."

"Oh my god…" Grace gasped, eyes skimming over the small font. "But it's like three pages long!" She couldn't believe that the death toll was already so high.

"Yeah…" she took a deep breath, turning towards the sand ninja. "Gaara?"

He stopped walking, already growing worried. He'd been listening in on the conversation about the list of the dead, so for someone to call his name like that… he wasn't expecting good news. "What is it?" he called back behind him.

"There's… something you need to see." Taylor told him sadly, handing him the list. "I-I'm sorry…."

Growing more anxious by the second, Gaara quickly skimmed the list for the Naruto characters. He stopped when he saw his brother's name, expression immediately falling. He couldn't bring himself to believe it had happened. Unsure how to even feel about it, he quietly handed the list back to Taylor, not saying anything, not even looking at her, just staring at the ground.

"Gaara? What did it say?" Grace spoke up, filled with concern for the sand ninja.

Gaara couldn't even find the words to say it. He sighed deeply, not breaking eye contact with the ground. "My brother… they… they…."

Grace let out another small gasp, almost tearing up at the thought of her beloved ninja's pain. "Oh my god… oh Gaara I'm so sorry!" she wailed, wishing she could help. "Poor Kankuro…." She whispered sadly.

"Yeah, I just… figured you had the right to know…." Taylor struggled to say, upset and enraged by the whole ordeal. "Sorry…."

"Don't be sorry." Gaara told them, continuing the walk home. "It wasn't your fault. And also there's… nothing you can do to change the fact." He concluded. And no one had any more comforting words.

And the rest of the trek home was in silence.

* * *

><p>AN- On a lighter note, I'd like to proudly announce that this chapter was written for the celebration of the 2nd Anniversary of the Glomp! roleplay thread! As of today, Glomp! is two years old. That's two years of convoluted anime shenanigans, awful OA death tolls, weeping for our favorites, making references to the story that no one else would understand, and, in my case, cosplaying as an OA member to anime conventions. (Turns out, if you randomly sneak up on people, handcuff them, and drag them away without a word, 80% of your victims won't even try to resist, confused as they may be. Try it sometime.)

That said, I'd like to wish the Glomp! family a happy anniversary. And not only the immediate family of myself, Cheetay, Animegal1251 and Katyroo, but even the extended family, which includes all of the loyal fans of the fanfiction, which is always inviting in new members of the Glomp! family. Happy anniversary, everyone. Here's to another great year.


	17. Easter Egg

A/N- My timing for updates is impeccable.

* * *

><p>"Oh Len, it's so nice just to spend time with you after so long," Rin sighed pleasantly, the two of them together in Taylor's backyard, away from all the fangirl chaos inside, leaning against the side of the house. It was evening, and things had certainly mellowed out since the OA raid that morning. For the time being, most of the group members were acting like their normal selves. "We were so worried. No one knew where you were or if you were ok…."<p>

"Heh, well, I sort of worried the same about you… with OA running around and all…." Len replied sheepishly. "But we don't have to worry about that now. We have a team of ninjas protecting us, and as long as we stay together, we'll be fine." He reassured her, welcoming her into his embrace.

Though the sweet silence only lasted a minute before Len was once again distracted by a spark of purple caught in his peripheral vision. He turned his head sharply to the right, trying to look past Rin to see what it was, but just like last time, it had vanished.

"…What are you looking at?" Rin questioned, turning her head in the same direction.

"I swear I saw a purple light, kinda like the one that brought us here…" he started to explain, standing up as his curiosity drew him towards where the light seemed to come from. "I remember seeing it yesterday, too, when we left to hunt down Sasuke, but we were all kind of rushing out the door so I didn't have time to stop and investigate. Plus I was the only one who noticed it so I assumed I was just seeing things…."

"Well then," Rin replied, getting up as well and brushing grass off of herself, "We have time to investigate _now_, right? Let's go see what it is."

"Well uh… it looked like it came from over there." Len answered unsurely, pointing to his right, around the corner of the house.

Rin wandered ahead, now as curious as Len. When she peeked around the corner, her eyes widened. "Well there's certainly something over there…" she told him, not sure what it was.

"Huh? Really?" Len asked, honestly somewhat surprised there actually was something out there. He quickly caught up to his sister, but stopped as well when he spotted the source of the glow.

In the growing darkness, the twins could easily see a bright purple light shining through the weeds and foliage growing along the side of the house. Whatever form it took on was still hidden, but it was clear at this point that it wasn't just Len's imagination. The two of them glanced at each other, wondering just what it was.

"…Might as well find out what it is." Rin spoke up, stepping forward.

"Waaaait!" Len wailed, grabbing her arm.

"What?" Rin looked at him skeptically.

"…Well… we don't know what it is…" Len tried to explain, glancing at it cautiously. "It could be something dangerous from some weird anime!"

"…Or it could be something small and adorable from some cute anime." Rin smirked, pulling Len away.

Len sighed. "Fine, we'll… go see what it is."

The two of them approached the source of the light cautiously, crouching down next to it. As they pulled back the leaves and greenery surrounding it, the twins peered down through the weeds at… an egg. A small egg, barely larger than that of a chicken, and its shell was a pure, deep lavender. There was no doubting that it was the source of the glow, which still flickered like a small flame, but the question still remained of just _what _it was. The vocaloids blinked, now possibly more confused than they were before. "…Is that normal in this world?" Rin asked.

"Somehow I doubt that." Len answered, silently questioning whether or not it was safe to be around it. "It's probably from some anime; we should ask the girls about it." He told her, hesitantly cupping his hands around the tiny thing to bring it inside. "I-it's warm…" he commented, sounding surprised as he got to his feet. Somehow he didn't expect to feel such a warm, pleasant aura emanating from it. "It feels really nice though…" he went on as they made their way back around the house, holding the egg up to his still bruised face and letting it be soothed by the warm aura. "Ahh~"

Rin blinked skeptically.

* * *

><p>"Tayloooooooooor! Get off of meeeeeeeee!" Grace wailed, trapped sprawled out on the couch under Taylor's weight, the other otaku smugly sitting on Grace's back.<p>

"Nevah! This is what you get for stealing my pocky!" Taylor scolded her, not budging from where she sat.

"Taylorlor shenanigans. That's what you get." Alyssa added.

"Alyssa you're not helpiiiiing!" Grace cried.

Meanwhile, the twins had made their way inside and followed the sounds of commotion into the living room. They stood at the entrance to the room hesitantly, neither of them quite sure what to make of _this _scene, either. "Are we… interrupting something…?" Len asked unsurely, the egg still cradled in his hands.

"Don't ask. It's better if you don't ask." Sasuke told him as he rubbed his temples, leaving the room and wandering off somewhere.

Taylor blinked. "Whatcha got there?" she asked, spotting something purple in Len's hands.

"Some sort of anime egg, it would seem." Rin answered. "We were hoping you girls might have some idea what it is."

"Really?" Taylor sounded intrigued. She got off of Grace and walked forward to investigate.

"Eeeeeeeggggssss let's eat it!" Grace wailed enthusiastically, rolling off of the couch.

"Wah! Let's not!" Len cried, pulling the egg away protectively.

"Relaaaaax I'm sure she was kidding…" Alyssa told him. "Can we see it?"

Len sighed. "Here…" he said, holding it out for the girls to see. "Rin and I found it in the backyard. It was glowing quite a bit…" he explained, since it didn't seem to be glowing much anymore- either that or it was too bright inside to see it. "Know anything that sounds like that?" he asked, the three otakus now gathered around.

"Um… not quite…" Alyssa told them unsurely. "I mean, it's just so small- most eggs that come to mind when I think of those sorts of animes are usually a lot bigger. Just look at Pokemon or Digimon, for example."

"Yeah but, what about Shugo Chara eggs?" Taylor suggested, although not sounding completely sure herself. "They're about that size."

"Aren't Shugo Chara eggs more… decorative?" Alyssa argued. "Usually they have all those fancy patterns and designs on them. This one looks like it was just dyed purple or something- Shugo Chara eggs don't have that solid color to them…"

* * *

><p>Gaara, meanwhile, was away from the commotion, seeking the solitude that could usually be found up on the roof of Taylor's house. He was still stuck on what happened earlier that day; the OA attack, and the news that came with it. He couldn't stop thinking about his brother's death, or how to react to it. Mainly, he was still having a hard time believing it. Unable to pull himself out of his gloomy mood, he sought silence in a place the otakus were unlikely to follow him to.<p>

"You're pathetic." A familiar voice growled. Gaara looked up to see Sasuke standing over him, a look of disdain on his face. Not too surprising.

Gaara stood up without a word, turning his back on Sasuke and walking away from him. "Go away." He said after a bit.

Sasuke crossed his arms. "You're weak, sulking up here like this. What good do you expect that to do?"

Gaara glared into the distance, growing ever more annoyed with the young ninja, his back still turned. It took him a second to respond. Finally he said back, "Try to remember how you felt when your family was killed, Sasuke… that's how I feel right now."

"That's not what I meant, stupid." The Uchiha snapped back. "Instead of bottling his death up as sadness, bottle it up as hatred." He continued. "Keep it boiling within you… then release it at the man who caused it."

Gaara paused again, then finally looked back at Sasuke. "That would make me no better than you." He told him, then turning to walk away again. "The man who caused his death will be caught with or without my help. I don't need to become like you for that to happen." He looked down off the edge of the roof, before jumping off and landing on his feet on the ground below. _Besides, I don't really want revenge. _He continued to himself. _Naruto just helped me out of the darkness, I don't want to go back into it…_

* * *

><p>"Gaaaah too many animes with eggs!" Grace cried in frustration, flopping back down on the couch. "Gray, what do you think?" she asked the ice mage, who'd been resting on the couch on the other end of the room.<p>

"Huh?" he responded, evidently not having paid much attention to the conversation at hand. "Uh… well, the only eggs from my world that really come to mind are Exceed eggs…" he answered, thinking back to the egg that hatched Happy. "But like you already said, it's too small for that."

Alyssa yawned, thinking back to the Exceed herself. "Yeah… somehow I doubt we'll hatch a magic flying cat…."

Len blinked. "'Hatch'? We're hatching it?"

"I assumed that's what you wanted to do with it." Alyssa replied. "Isn't that what you brought it in for? Unless you just wanted to figure out what it was, and then put it back…"

"Well uh…" Len looked down at it nervously. He sort of hadn't considered the thought of raising whatever was inside until now, and it still struck him as a bit odd, but… "Heh, sure, let's hatch it. We might as well, since we found it…" he replied, still looking into the egg's faint glow- now wondering what would be inside when it hatched, and how long that would take…

"Alyssaaaa…!" Taylor whined, curling up on the couch next to Grace, clearly exhausted. "What time is it…..?"

The other otaku yawned again, checking the time on her cell phone. "Like 9…" she answered tiredly.

"Bluh… it feels like so much later…." Taylor replied groggily. Indeed, it had been quite a long day.

Rin yawned as well. "Yeah, we should probably figure out which rooms everyone is sleeping in…"

There was a collective, tired moan from the otaku girls. It seemed to imply agreement.

Just then, Gaara poked his head into the living room, seeing everyone lying about; the day's events leaving them drained. But before he could say anything, the silence was broken by a scream from one of the otaku girls.

"Gaara!" Grace gasped, getting up from the couch in a hurry and running over to hug him. "Gaara! Where were you all this time? I missed you!" she told him, burying her face in his chest.

Gaara looked down at her skeptically, but only for a second. He had grown rather used to Grace's antics by now. And although he meant to avoid her at first, the presence of such an upbeat soul was… rather comforting, in a way.

"Does she even… need sleep….?" Alyssa groaned, trying to make sense of the scene in front of her.

Taylor's response was an incomprehensible mumbling, as she spread out across the now otherwise vacant couch.

"Hey, wait a minute, Len..." Rin spoke up, getting her brother's attention, a skeptical look on her face. "I just noticed something," she pointed to his cheek. "Your bruise is gone- when did that happen?"

"Huh?!" Len echoed back, clearly surprised. Ever since he was attacked by the OA agent that morning, a large, ugly bruise was clearly visible where he was kicked. But now, all of a sudden, there seemed to be no trace of it. Feeling around his own face for any sort of pain or tenderness a bruise would normally bring, he found none.

Rin took a closer look at him, rather amazed herself. "It's like it completely healed all at once."

"That's incredible..." Len mused, looking down at the egg in his hands.

And then night fell on the otaku household.


	18. Why Does This Chapter Exist

A/N- Due to the unfortunate closing of the original roleplay thread that this fanfiction is based on, I've decided to give Cheetay (roleplay member and co-GM) a co-authoring position for the story from this point onward. Also, even though the roleplay didn't reach a real ending, I will make sure the fanfic ends - I'll just have to write my own ending when I reach the end of the thread. (Although it'll be like years till I get that far, so, don't worry about it.)

* * *

><p>"Alright guys, we're going swimming today."<p>

Taylor's sudden and unexpected announcement was evidently one that caused confusion among the members of the otaku and character team, as several of the characters who had gathered around the table for their lunch of delivery pizza all paused and glanced at their pseudo-leader with a look of confusion.

"Yay swimming!" Grace cheered, actually rather fond of the idea. "Wait why are we going swimming?"

Taylor shrugged. "I thought it would be fun." She answered simply. "I called my dad last night when I first got the idea. There's an indoor pool near where he works - private, too - and he told me where he keeps the keys to get in."

"Fuuuun!" Grace squeaked, practically bouncing up and down. "Oh my god I get to go swimming with Gaara! I get to see Gaara in swim trunks! In person!"

Gaara saw this as an excellent opportunity to deter the group from the idea. "I thought we were supposed to be battling OA." He deadpanned.

"He's right." Itachi spoke up. "OA's activities won't stop just because you decide to run off and have fun. What happened to making them die 'a slow and painful death'?" he hissed.

Taylor sighed. "We just attacked them yesterday, so I figured they should still be recuperating." She answered. "Not to mention, _some of us_ might not be ready to fight OA again anytime soon," she subtly jerked her head in Rin and Len's direction. "and with how crazy everything's been in the last couple days, I think we _all_ need some time to relax and not have to worry about that kind of danger. I thought this would be a good way to calm down and have a little fun." She explained.

"I think it's a good idea…" Alyssa chimed in quietly, happily nomming on her pizza.

"Wait, has Gaara ever swam before…?" Grace thought to herself out loud.

"I'm glad you decided we should take a break from fighting OA, Taylor, but unfortunately I'll be too busy to go swimming with the rest of you…" Len told them without even looking up, too focused on constructing a makeshift nest out of a cloth napkin so that he'd have someplace to set the egg while he ate.

Taylor blinked. "You're going to watch it the entire time until it hatches?"

"Well, I don't want anything to happen to it…" he replied. "Plus, I don't think it'll be too long before it hatches, either. Last night, I even felt it move!" he told her excitedly.

"_It moves occasionally. It may be close to hatching._" Alyssa quoted.

"Wait, people who live in the desert wouldn't know how to swim, would they?" Grace continued.

Gaara just sighed.

Grace gasped loudly. "Gaara doesn't know how to swim!"

"Don't scream it like that…" he glared at her.

"Don't be embarrassed, Gaara; I can teach you how to swim!"

Gray couldn't help but laugh at the mental image.

"Don't laugh! I'm serious!" Grace snapped at him.

Gaara didn't say anything in response, but he didn't seem to like the direction this was going in.

"Don't worry Gaara, us fangirls won't let you drown." Taylor reassured him, laughing.

"Yeah!" Grace cheered. "Just don't go in the deep end and take your gourd off before you go in the water, and you should be fine!"

Gaara just sighed again.

"Sooo… how're we gonna get swimsuits for everyone?" Alyssa spoke up.

"Well I figured you and Grace can just borrow some of mine, or we could stop at your places on the way there." Taylor answered her. "As for the boys, they can borrow my cousin's trunks; Lord knows why he left _those _here…" she explained, before wandering off to find the aforementioned suits.

"Hn. I want no part of this." Sasuke stated coldly before getting up to leave the room.

"What's wrong with swimming and having a little fun?" Gray asked him.

"I just don't want to swim." He snapped back at the ice mage as he left. Itachi, silently agreeing, followed him out of the dining room, leaving an awkward silence behind.

"…Hey Gaara, how come you haven't tried any of the pizza yet?" Grace then spoke up to break the silence, noting how the sand ninja hadn't touched his lunch.

"I don't want any." Gaara replied flatly, staring at the slice.

"Oh come on, just try it!" Grace urged him, her voice reaching a squeaky fangirl pitch.

"I'm not hungry right now." He deadpanned.

"Eat it or I'll let you drown…" Grace threatened, giving him a mock glare of intimidation.

Gaara shot her a look of mild skepticism, but decided to make himself eat just to make her happy. Better that than listening to her constant pestering. After hearing the news of his brother's death, he was hardly in the mood for the fangirls' shenanigans, still feeling broken and not knowing how to react – but he kept wearing his stoic face and monotone voice and tolerated them silently. There was another minute of silence.

But the silence was again broken – this time by the sound of several loud thuds and Taylor cursing in pain – as the third member of the otaku trio had presumably just tumbled down the stairs, and even the Kagamines, previously so distracted, had lifted their heads at the sound along with everyone else.

"We should probably make sure she's ok…" Rin spoke up, though trying like everyone else not to grin or laugh.

"Yeeaaah we should." Alyssa agreed as she, Grace, Gray and Rin all left to check on Taylor.

This left Gaara almost entirely alone at the table, at least aside from Len, who'd promptly turned his attention back to the egg already. With Grace having finally left him alone, he had a chance to breathe and think. Grace was ok company, and from time to time her upbeat presence was comforting, but still frustrated and upset over what happened to Kankuro, still needing to figure out how to react and what to do next, he found her fangirl hyperactivity far more irritating than usual. Still trying to sort out his thoughts, he turned his gaze towards the vocaloid sitting across from him – seemingly deep in thought as well, but likely for different reasons. Then, a thought occurred to him. "Len…" he spoke up, not sure how to phrase what he was going to say next. "Didn't you… lose someone to OA, as well?" he asked slowly.

"Huh?" Len responded as he pulled his head up, not expecting the question and a bit taken aback by it. "Well uh… yeah, I did. Someone I really liked…" he answered quietly and sadly. "But, that's why I've been trying to distract myself," he continued, speaking a bit more optimistically. "Not sure why, but this egg I found just feels… comforting. Like it's meant to heal. I guess I'm pretty lucky I found it after such… sad events." He grew quiet again, then paused as the room grew silent, save for the sound of the girls' muffled laughter in the background. "Did you… lose someone, too?"

Gaara nodded slowly.

"Well, uh… if you want you could… help me take care of the egg?" he suggested unsurely. "I mean, maybe it'll help you, too?"

Gaara considered it, then shook his head. "No thank you…" he responded quietly. "I'm still figuring out what I should do for Kankuro…"

* * *

><p>"EEEEEEEEEEE GAARA LOOKS SO ADORABLE!" Grace screeched, nearly bouncing up and down. Now at the pool with everyone having changed into their suits, the fangirl was thrilled to see Gaara wearing nothing but swim trunks, with even his gourd set aside, though he didn't seem to like it. Sasuke wasn't enjoying the situation either, as both ninjas stood there with their arms crossed and looks of irritation on their faces. The Uchiha looked even more ticked off when he realized that a good chunk of the team wasn't even swimming, keeping to themselves.<p>

"Hey, why aren't you forcing Itachi to swim?" Sasuke snapped.

"There were only so many suits to go around and Itachi was harder to convince." Alyssa shrugged.

Just then a loud splash was heard as Taylor jumped into the pool, resurfacing shortly after. "What're you guys waiting for?"

"Yeah Gaara let's teach you how to swim!" Grace exclaimed, following after her.

As soon as Gaara had reluctantly made his way into the water, the swimming lesson was ready to begin. "Are you sure you know how to teach people how to swim?" Gaara asked.

"Yeah of course! I even used to have a job teaching five-year-olds to do it!" Grace reassured him.

"'Used to'?" he echoed.

"That's not important! Point is I know how to do this!"

The sand ninja sighed. "Alright… Where do we begin?"

"We'll start by having you float on your back. So lean back!"

He blinked, confused. "What?"

"Just lean back and float on the water ya silly ginger!"

Gaara looked a little hesitant, but he followed her instructions and slowly leaned back as Grace put her hands under him to hold him up, like she would always do with the little kids. "Look Gaara! You're floating!" she exclaimed.

"That's because you're holding me up." He deadpanned.

"Ugh, can't you just be like one of the little five-year-olds and be surprised that it's so easy to float?!" she yelled.

"No."

Grace then smirked, pulling her arms back. "Not even when you're doing it on your own?" she grinned, lifting her hands above the water where he could see them.

Gaara's eyes widened slightly, until he stood up, turned his head and masked his emotions again. Grace was sent into a fit of giggles by his reaction, absolutely ecstatic at how the lesson was going. "See Gaara swimming is easy when you get the hang of it!" she told him excitedly. "Ok, so now we'll work on real swimming. We'll start with the doggy paddle then move up to actual strokes and then we'll finish our lesson by treading water in the deep end!" she happily summed up her lesson schedule.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Rin and Len were keeping to themselves, sitting on the pool bleachers a safe distance from the water, and tending to the egg. Len had his hands cupped around it, holding it securely as well as keeping it warm – or at least that's what he was trying to do. "You sure you've been keeping it warm enough all this time?" Rin spoke up.<p>

"Must be." Len answered. "I mean, like I said, it moves sometimes, so it has to be alive. And close to hatching, too."

"Mm…" Rin mused, stretching her legs out and relaxing. "Any idea what it will hatch into?"

"Not a clue." Len replied. "Well, except that it seems to be able to heal things… both physically and emotionally." He told her, looking over the egg carefully, and the way its purple shell shined. Then, his eyes widened. "Wait a minute…"

"Hmm?" Rin sat up slightly.

"Well when I was looking at it closely, I realized…"

"So I noticed you two were being an island." A dripping-wet Alyssa spoke up from behind them, her appearance apparently sudden enough to startle the two of them, with Len scrambling to keep his grip on the egg as it almost slipped out of his hands.

"Don't sneak up on people like that!" Len gasped, still catching his breath. "You almost made me drop the egg!"

"…Island?" Rin echoed.

"Well, like… you're isolated from everyone else. That makes you an island." Alyssa explained. "Ironically though, you're not in the water, unlike most of us, which is contrary to what you'd expect from an island…"

* * *

><p>"NOW DOGGY PADDLE!"<p>

"What." Gaara asked flatly.

"You swim like a dog. Basically you just move your arms and legs like a dog walks with your head above the water and you end up swimming! Like this!" Grace exclaimed as she began doggy paddling, with Gray watching the amusing swimming lesson from his perch on the edge of the pool. He couldn't help but chuckle.

"You look ridiculous." Gaara told her. He found himself wondering if these exercises were even really necessary.

"I don't care!" Grace shot back. "Now do the doggy paddle or else!"

Gaara just stared at her.

"Or else… Or else I'll find a way to tell everyone from your world that you can't swim! And they'll make fun of you forever!"

Gaara stared for a second longer, then gave in. "If it'll make you shut up then fine…"

"Yay!" Grace cheered as Taylor also swam forward to watch Gaara try doggy paddling, inching forward in the water with that stoic and irritated expression on his face. This time Gray couldn't help but burst out laughing, to which Grace promptly shushed and splashed him.

By then, Gaara had decided that being able to suspend himself in the water and move around at that level was good enough. "Ok I learned to swim. I'm done." He stated as he put his feet back down on the ground and started walking towards the edge, not wanting any more of this.

"Nooooo you're not done!" Grace wailed. "I still have to teach you freestyle and the back stroke and the breast stroke!" Gray started laughing again. "Why do all boys laugh at the name 'breast stroke'?!" Grace yelled, splashing him again.

"I don't think I want to know what a breast stroke is…" Gaara commented, starting to climb out of the pool.

"No!" Taylor stopped him, grabbing onto the ninja before he could leave. "Kazekage must learn…. What if… what if the desert suddenly floods? How'll you save everyone if you don't know how to swim?!" she cried, trying to pull him back into the pool.

"How would a desert flood?" Sasuke snarked, soaking in the hot tub not far off.

"Anything can happen emo-ass!" Taylor yelled back, glaring at him.

"…Fine, I'll learn one stroke but then I'm getting out…" Gaara told the girls, stepping back into the water.

"Freestyle it is!" Grace announced. "And Sasuke maybe you should get out of there soon. I hear staying in a hot tub for too long is bad for you."

"Yeah, haven't you been in there almost since we got here?" Taylor added.

Overhearing this, Alyssa gasped loudly, completely distracted from her conversation with the Kagamines. "SASUKE NO DON'T BE AN ISLAND!" the otaku yelled, scampering over to him. "Because if you're an island, too… then it'll be, like, a whole chain of islands…!" she rambled.

Sasuke glared at her. "Leave me the hell alone." He snarled.

"Sasuke, you need to chill." Gray spoke up. "What did she ever do to you?"

"GRAY ERZA'S BEHIND YOU!" Grace shouted. Without even waiting for a response from Sasuke, the ice mage immediately scrambled into the pool, submerging himself under the water, looking terrified, while the girls laughed.

Gray resurfaced slowly, glaring at Grace. "She wasn't really there, was she?"

"Nope I just wanted to get you into the pool!" Grace chirped. "Say, what's up with the twins? Are they upset about something?" she asked as she noticed how they'd been keeping to themselves.

"I don't think so," Alyssa answered as she wandered back towards the water. "They're just busy keeping an eye on the egg, is all."

"We should go talk to them if you don't want people being 'islands'." Grace spoke up. "Gray, you teach Gaara the basics of freestyle."

"Why me?" Gray asked.

"Because you know how to swim!" she answered before climbing out of the pool and dragging Alyssa with her towards the twins. "Hi guys!" she called, the two of them wrapping themselves in towels before sitting down next to them. "How's the egg doing?"

"We think it'll hatch soon!" Len answered excitedly.

"Yessss I can't wait for it to hatch!" Grace exclaimed. "I've been wondering what it could be… maybe it'll hatch into a purple chicken! That'd be cool!"

"Heh, actually… that does remind me of something." Len replied.

"What is it?" Alyssa questioned.

"Well, yeah, it's purple," Len started to explain. "And when I looked closely at the purple color, and the way it shined, I remembered something else that's purple,"

"Eggplants!" Grace shouted exuberantly before Len could finish. "Eggplants are purple, right?!"

"… Well yes…. But that wasn't what I was referring to." Len responded slowly. "See, I got to thinking about how the egg glows sometimes. Rin and I found it because it was glowing and caught our attention. In fact days before I found the egg I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a tiny flash of purple light that seemed to be coming from Taylor's backyard – and I think that was the egg, too, before we found it."

"Flash of purple…" Rin contemplated, the notion sounding very familiar.

"Oh yeah!" Grace exclaimed. "Len, didn't you and the ninjas say you saw a purple flash of light right before you were sent here?"

Len nodded, then turned to his sister. "Rin, did you see the same thing? So far every character's said the same thing, so it's probably the same for everyone."

Rin thought back, and surely enough she did remember seeing a purple light just before being thrown into another world as well as OA's clutches. "Yeah… I did see a light like that." She answered. "At the time I was more distracted by suddenly being someplace else, so I sort of forgot about it. But yes, I definitely saw it." She nodded.

"So not only is that something all the anime characters have in common, but that purple light looks just like the one the egg has…" Len mused, looking down at the egg in his hands. Its eggshell was the exact same shade; that light purple, almost lavender color, as the light he remembered seeing. The exact same color.

"So if the egg gives off the same kind of light… maybe it has something to do with the characters that come here?" Grace suggested. "Maybe it's not actually from an anime but it's connected in some other way…"

"So you're saying a magic purple egg from Taylor's backyard is what's making the characters appear?" Alyssa spoke up, not sure what to believe. _I suppose there could've been weirder explanations for all this, if that is true… _

"Well I'm not sure if the egg's what's causing all of it or if it's even as simple as that, but I figured they had to be connected somehow." Len responded.

"Hmmm…" Rin hummed, a grin spreading across her face. "If it does bring characters here, I wonder if it takes requests." Rin thought aloud, looking at it closely. "Maybe with its help we wouldn't have to be separated from everyone for so long." She suggested. "She could bring other people we know here, like maybe Kaito, and then-"

"Why would you want to wish him here?!" Len interrupted her, sounding horrified.

"Huh?"

"_If_ it's possible to wish anyone into this world," Len started to explain. "Then odds are that when they make it here, they won't pop up remotely close to us, and instead they'll just get caught by OA…" he said grimly.

"…Oh… right, I wasn't thinking about that…." Rin responded quietly, the pool area growing silent. "I wish there was some way to see some of them again without that happening…"

* * *

><p>"Finished?" Gray asked as he saw Gaara about to climb out of the pool. The ninja had been practicing freestyle for a while, starting off pretty horrible at it, though he'd improved over time. Gaara was just silent, waiting for Gray to tell him he needed more practice or for Grace to appear out of nowhere and force him to learn something new and pointless. "I think you've gotten the hang of freestyle, if you don't wanna swim anymore." Gray added.<p>

"Finally…" he sighed as he climbed out of the pool, looking for a towel. Not far from where the dry towels were, he also saw everyone's clothes, including his own, and his gourd that he'd left there. As he dried himself off, he stood there for a second, just staring at it, as if deep in thought. But, before long he seemed to snap out of it, grabbing his clothes and slinging his gourd over his shoulder before looking for a place to change.

* * *

><p>Taylor yawned as she made her way out of the water, looking for a dry towel as just about everyone seemed to be done with the pool for the day. As she was drying off, she noticed Itachi lurking in the background, out of sight and out of mind, and it was then she let it dawn on her that she hadn't seen Itachi at all for most of the time they were swimming. "…Where've you been all day?" she asked.<p>

"Wandering." Itachi answered.

Taylor narrowed her eyes slightly. "You couldn't even stay in the pool area with the rest of us?" she asked skeptically.

"I didn't want to swim, and when I tried being alone the fluffy-haired one accused me of being an 'island'..." He explained.

"Oh…" Taylor replied. "Yeah that… makes sense. I'd want to get away from her, too." The otaku sympathized, then looked around at the gathering team, many of them in the process of drying off. "Well it looks like we'll be heading home soon, so I guess now is as good a time as any to re-join the group."

"Hn…" Itachi complied, stepping forwards.

Grace gasped when she noticed him. "Itachiiii!" she cried. "Why didn't you swim with the rest of us?!"

"I didn't want to swim." He replied flatly.

"Why not?!" she persisted.

"Because I dislike being wet. I avoid it whenever I can." He deadpanned.

Grace then let an evil smirk cover her face, as a perfect opportunity to mess with an Uchiha arose. "Weeeell… what if I can make you wet!" she yelled before hugging him as quickly as she could, having hardly dried off yet. But Grace could only keep herself on him for half a second before Itachi grabbed a hold of her, yanked her off and tossed her off the edge of the pool deck and into the water. Most of the other group members were initially somewhat shocked, but soon nearly everyone was laughing.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, however, while the girls were having fun with their character friends, their dreams come true – it was still a reality that, the majority of the time, Operation Anime was ensuring that that dream become a nightmare. Some ways away from the otaku group, yet another anime character – this one so terrified and confused after only having materialized in this world just a few minutes ago – was being forcibly taken hostage, and brought to his death. He tried to struggle and run away when the OA members came, but he was no fighter – not from any canon where it'd be expected that he'd have some experience in fighting. OA deemed the young man so non-threatening that they didn't even try opening fire on him when he was nearly able to outrun them – instead his captors managed to pull him back by grabbing his own scarf, and from there it took no effort to leave him handcuffed and incapable of fighting back in any way, left in the back of their van on their way back to base.<p>

* * *

><p>"So Gray, how well did Gaara do with the rest of his lesson?" Grace asked, trying to dry off a second time.<p>

"It took him a while to get the hang of freestyle, but eventually he was good enough at it that I said he could stop if he didn't want to swim anymore." Gray answered. Then he froze, realizing something was off. He looked around the pool area, but there was no sign of the sand ninja. "…Where is Gaara, anyway?"

"I was just about to ask…" Grace responded, now sounding slightly worried since neither of them knew where he went.

"Relax," Alyssa spoke up. "I saw him grab his clothes and gourd and stuff before he wandered off, so he probably just left to get changed."

"No, Gaara's gone." Sasuke corrected them bluntly.

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Taylor shot back skeptically.

"I mean he left. I can still sense his chakra signature, but I can tell he's not in the building anymore. Actually, he keeps moving farther away. Guess he just decided to leave." Sasuke shrugged, indifferent.

"What?!" Grace shrieked. "Why would he just leave?!"

The rest of the group seemed just as surprised, but with none of them sure what to do. "Should we go after him?" Gray suggested unsurely.

"W-well, actually, I think we might have to wait a minute…" Len spoke up quietly.

"What's the problem?" Sasuke jeered. "Gaara's strong enough to handle himself out there."

"Um, guys…?!" Len seemed more and more anxious each time he spoke.

"Len, what's wrong?" Rin spoke up, noticing something was off about him.

"W-well I wouldn't say 'wrong', but…" he spread out the palms of his hands, watching the small egg rock back and forth. "…But I think this thing is hatching!"

"Wait _what_?!" Grace screamed even louder this time, immediately wanting to get as close as possible to watch it hatch. "Lemmie see! Lemmie see!"

And as Grace tried to squeeze into a spot where she could watch, so did most of the rest of the group, as news of the mysterious and intriguing egg hatching quickly captured everyone's attention as practically the whole team tried to look over Len's shoulders. For a while there were no visible cracks in the eggshell; the team could only watch it move around in sheer anticipation as the last and shortest member of the otaku team, Alyssa, was stuck at the back of the crowd with no better place to watch from, struggling to see over everyone's heads. Kneeling on the bleachers, she inched forward just a bit too far, making herself slip and fall onto the person below her, pushing them down as well – and with everyone packed in so densely, a domino effect started. Nearly everyone was shoved or toppled over in some way, and at the end of it all, Len wound up getting knocked off the bottom bleacher, and while he tried to tighten his grip, the still not-yet-hatched egg rolled right off his fingertips.

Everyone held their breath as it fell the short distance to the pool deck. A crack appeared, but the egg still held its shape, and thus, it rolled. As soon as Len could bring himself to react, he reached for it, crawling along the deck floor. But the egg was barely an inch or two from the water's edge when it had begun to roll, and by the time Len had managed to reach out far enough to grab it, the tiny thing had already rolled off the edge and slipped under the surface, leaving Len's empty hand suspended over the water.

Len froze. Everyone froze. Everyone knew what just happened but no one knew what to react – what to say or do; the whole team was just frozen in shock for several, long seconds. _That… didn't just happen…._ Len thought in despair, unable to speak, like everyone else, as the hope-bringing healing creature that he'd kept so close to him was surely drowning as its eggshell opened only for water to pour in. "I can't believe it…" he whimpered, eyes brimming with tears.

"Hn." Sasuke scoffed.

But before anyone could say or do anything further – before anyone could unfreeze themselves and try to save it or even react to Sasuke, the water began to glow. In that same violet hue that Len had made note of, a radiating glow spread out from under the surface. The team crowded around the pool edge, crouching down mystified and in suspense – and even Sasuke plowed his way through to see what was happening up-close, standing right in front of it, looking down at the glowing surface. _How could it have survived?_ He thought skeptically, waiting to see what would happen.

Eventually a ball of same-colored light emerged from the surface, blinding at first as it rose into the air, but it quickly dimmed. When the light dimmed completely, everyone stared wide-eyed. Suspended in the air without wings was a fur-covered creature – small, but larger than the egg it hatched from – with thick fur that was the same color as the light and everything else. Once it was visible, it uncurled its body and stretched out its limbs, revealing a very recognizable sort of being. Floating in the air effortlessly, the entity opened its big kitty eyes for the first time in front of the only thing directly in front of it – the face of a very confused Sasuke – and blinked curiously.

"Nya?"

* * *

><p>AN- Gaara only swims freestyle.


	19. Kitty Bonding Time

A/N- Sorry for the updates being so few and far apart... I started writing this over two years ago. I don't have nearly as much free time now as I did then. :/

Speaking of which, this chapter was originally supposed to be much, much longer - one of the bigger one's for Glomp!'s standards - but since I'd gotten this far before getting busy again and I didn't want you guys to wait another three months or so when I already had at least this, I decided to re-think my chapter division and post this part of it as-is. So if it seems short and with an abrupt ending... this is why.

* * *

><p>"That's amazing…"<p>

"Incredible…"

"It's…"

"IT'S SO CUUUUTE!" Grace wailed. "IT'S SUPER DUPER ULTRA MEGA CUTE!"

Floating just above the water was a small feline, only the size of a week-old kitten, with long, thick lavender fur the same color as its eggshell. It stood suspended in the air, impervious to gravity, tumbling around as it got used to its orientation in space. While the rest of the group looked on in awe and amazement, the cat turned its head upwards and smiled cutely at Sasuke. "Mya!"

"Aww…! Kawaii!" Taylor cooed, extending her arm to reach the adorable creature, but the kitten shied away, floating further out across the water. Taylor blinked, confused. "That's weird, cats usually love me…"

"It's not a normal cat, stupid." Sasuke scoffed, watching the being closely, their eyes locked.

"Well, yeah, but… it's cute though, right 'Tachi?"

Itachi glanced between the three of them, but said nothing.

It was then that Len spoke up, his eyes not once having left the creature. "Well, I hatched it, so, maybe she'd rather be with me?" he suggested hesitantly, before attempting to beckon the cat forward. "C'mere, kitty…" he called sweetly, the kitten coming in closer as he gestured it to do, tilting its head to the side and watching him for a moment… before swiftly changing course and eagerly flying straight towards Sasuke, stopping barely an inch away from his face.

"What the hell?!" the Uchiha snarled, revolted, taking a step back.

"Sasuke be nice to the cat!" Grace scolded.

"Yeah, it might scratch your face off or something." Gray added.

The ninja ignored them, glaring at the creature as it continued to cling to him.

"Ooh we should name it now!" Grace cheered excitedly. "Guys what do you think we should name it?"

"Hey, Len found and hatched it," Rin spoke up. "He should be the one to pick out a name!"

"O-oh, a name?" Len replied unsurely. "I… actually didn't think that far." He told them shyly. "I really have no idea what its name should be."

"Well maybe it would be easier to think of a name if we knew whether it was a boy or a girl." Alyssa suggested, approaching the cat. Though she only planned on gently grasping her and pulling her away from the Uchiha for barely a second, the kitten refused her very touch, zipping to a height just out of reach, tail between her legs. Alyssa groaned in annoyance.

"Sasukeeeeeee!" Grace wailed. "You're the only person it likes! Tell us what gender the kitty is!"

Sasuke sighed in irritation, gesturing to the cat to come back down. The small creature in his hands, he took a moment to inspect it. "It's a girl." He reported.

"Yaaaaaay does that help you think of any ideas, Len?" Grace chirped.

"You know, I hate to interrupt," Gray spoke up. "But Gaara's still missing. Weren't we going to go look for him or something?"

"OH RIGHT GAARA I TOTALLY FORGOT!" Grace screamed, her excitement turning to panic in about a second flat.

"Grace, calm down!" Taylor urged her. "I'm sure Gaara wouldn't go out on his own unless he knew what he was doing."

"You don't know that!" Grace yelled back. "What if OA got him?!"

"…How... would OA capture Gaara?" Alyssa asked slowly.

"I dunno maybe they doused him with water so his sand got all wet and he couldn't use it! You never know!"

While the group was distracted, the cat had actually managed to distance herself from Sasuke, now sitting not far from the group, staring at the wall as her tail wagged rhythmically, as if she was concentrating on something. It was then that Len noticed her, and slowly approached, wondering what she was doing. Before he'd gotten too close, the kitten's ears perked up as she rose to her feet, staring fiercely ahead.

"Hey, what're you looking at?" Len asked curiously, crawling towards her. The vocaloid reached for the feline, but hesitated when he saw her fur standing on end. Her coloration seemed to be getting brighter, too, until Len realized her fur wasn't just getting lighter – it was actually emanating light. He backed up slowly, not knowing what to do as the creature started glowing with a bright purple illumination…

* * *

><p>Elsewhere, a scarf-wearing OA prisoner was still huddled in the back of one of their vans, terrified, as they approached the OA base. His fear grew as he felt the vehicle slow to a stop, inferring that he'd reached his final destination. Despite how he'd been ordered to do otherwise, the prisoner couldn't even bring himself to stand, much less exit the van. He wanted to fight back, to escape, but he was too weak…<p>

Just as the thought entered his mind, he felt a strange sensation come over him. At first it did nothing to ease his fears, feeling an unusual energy flow through him without knowing what it was, but that fear was soon suppressed and replaced with numbness as he pulled himself to his feet, vision hazy as he was possessed by an unknown power, a violet aura surrounding him.

"Hey! What're you doing?!" the driver called, turning around towards the captured character, but his eyes widened slightly when he realized that the previously defenseless being was surrounded by a foreboding aura of strength.

The prisoner himself was in a strange state of semi-consciousness. It felt like a dream; he saw everything happen around him but couldn't take in how surreal it was, not fully aware of the scene around him. Not fully in-control, words were placed in his head, and he agreed to speak them, "Release me." He commanded monotonously.

The OA member reached for his weapon instinctively, pointing it threateningly at the character – but he couldn't think of the right words to say. "You… stop doing that right now!" he ordered, fear beginning to hinder his thinking ability.

"No, you stop." The mysterious being replied, pulling his arms out in front of him to reveal the broken chains attached to the cuffs that previously bound him. "Let me go."

Out of options, the OA grunt fired his weapon – the bullet colliding with the character's forehead. But, it deflected off of him as if his skin was made of steel. The character himself barely even flinched. Terrified, the OA agent continued to fire his gun, but of course, not a single shot was effective.

"I said, let me go." The being repeated. He took a single step forward, and the OA member reached his limit. Fearing for his life – for whatever that thing had the power to do to him – he fled the vehicle, running for dear life.

* * *

><p>"What's it doing?!" Grace shrieked, their whole group gathered around the mysterious cat. Her back was to everyone, her eyes remained fixed on the wall, and her body still illuminated that same purple shine.<p>

"I don't know…" Len spoke back quietly, not taking his eyes off of her. "She just started doing that all of a sudden… she's not responding to anything else, either."

Finally, though, the kitten released herself from the hold she had established, clearly exhausted as her light switched off and her body collapsed onto the pool deck all at once.

* * *

><p>And elsewhere, someone else fell to their knees as the hold on them was released, clutching their chest and breathing harshly as their body and mind caught up with what had just happened. Just beyond OA's premises, his glowing stopped, and he was left with a spinning head and exhaustion that kept him from moving a single inch further. "What… was that…?!"<p>

* * *

><p>"…Wait… did everyone else… see that?" Taylor asked slowly. Before any member of the group could approach the cat, they were all stopped by a particular vision – an image that popped into their heads, but hazy, and only for a second.<p>

"Who was that?" Gray asked.

Alyssa thought on the image that just flashed by. "It kind of looked like-"

"THAT WAS KAITO!" The twins screamed in unison.

"Did we all see the same person?" Grace asked.

"You mean the blue guy with the scarf?" Sasuke asked, only half-caring.

"Yeah that was him!" Grace exclaimed. "But why would we all see Kaito all of a sudden?"

"Did _she _do that…?" Len asked cautiously, pointing at the mysterious purple kitten as she overcame her exhaustion and walked back towards the group, still smiling cutely.

"Well she can fly and glow…" Alyssa assessed. "I guess it's not _too _outside the realm of possibility."

"But why would she do that?" Grace asked. "And how does she even know who Kaito is?"

"Wait a minute… Rin," Len whispered to his companion. "Didn't you wish for Kaito to come here?"

"Well yeah, but…" the vocaloid had a hard time processing the turn of events. "Don't tell me you're implying that-"

"She grants wishes, too?!" Grace shrieked. "You wished for him to be here and then she brought him here and told us with that vision whaaat?!"

"I think there was another reason why she brought him to our attention, though." Gray spoke up.

"You mean… you think he's in trouble or something?" Taylor replied.

Gray nodded. "Why else would she strain herself so much just for that?"

"Wait, you're saying OA got him?!" Len worried.

"Oh my god we gotta go save him!" Grace screamed.

"Wait, what're we doing?" Sasuke asked, looking at Grace skeptically.

"Don't you get it?!" she yelled back. "Rin wished Kaito here but now he's in trouble cuz OA caught him but the cat told us that cuz we still have a chance to save him so now we gotta go find that ice cream lover!" Grace ranted. "Everyone get your clothes on! Magic kitty will guide the way and our ninjas and ice mage will beat up all those meany OA members before they can harm a single blue hair on his head!"

And thus began otaku rescue mission number we-lost-count-a-long-time-ago.

* * *

><p>AN: Added 2/24/14

While I realize it's a shame to let the story stop here, preventing us from reaching anything that was planned for the future, I feel as if there's no point in continuing this series. My updates are few and far apart as it is and yet writing each chapter still feels like a chore, all while hardly anyone seems to care or read this story. Therefore, I think I've decided to retire it.

If anyone really does enjoy this series and wishes to see more of it, please leave a review or message me to tell me that. If anyone actually does care, there's a good chance I'll keep at it, but until then, I think it's time the Glomp! series is finally laid to rest. Thank you for reading this far.


	20. Here We Go Again

"Hey. Wake up." A voice pulled a resting character out of his sleep. Kaito's eyes blinked open slowly to the sight in front of him. The sun harshly glaring back at him, it took the vocaloid a moment to adjust his eyes onto the figure before him, and even longer for his senses to snap into action and comprehend what he was seeing. Eyes springing open, he suddenly tensed up, and scrambled back against the trunk of the tree he'd been sleeping under. "W-who are you?!" he stuttered. "What do you want?!"

The man in front of him sighed. "Relax. I'm not going to hurt you." the ninja assured him. "But, there are men around here who will; you'll recognize them by their black uniforms. You probably should keep your guard up. It's not wise to sleep out in the open where they can catch you." he explained.

"Oh, right, I…" Kaito replied awkwardly, dragging himself to his feet as he struggled to think of what he'd been doing last, and where he was, and what this whole situation was about. His memory came back to him slowly, everything still feeling so foreign to him. "Augh, it feels like I've been sleeping here for over a year…" he spoke between heavy breaths, sighing in a completely non-meta way. Then, he started to remember. "Oh, right, the guys in black…" he murmured. "I remember them!" he spoke up, before realizing that all he could see of the man before him was his red hair and the gourd on his back; he'd already started to walk away. "Hey! Wait up!" he called.

The ninja paused, looking slightly annoyed as he turned back towards Kaito. He had places he needed to be. Regardless, he stayed silent as he waited for the vocaloid to continue.

"Those men you mentioned with the black uniforms," he continued. "I… I remember them. They tried to capture me…" he spoke slowly.

Gaara raised a non-existant eyebrow a bit skeptically. This man was attacked by OA and escaped? He didn't look like much of a fighter. Looks could be deceiving, he supposed. At any rate, he didn't bother asking how.

"They captured me, and then…" Kaito trailed off. He remembered some strange force overcoming him, some entity taking over his body and giving him the strength he needed to escape. He didn't know what it was, and, when it left, he felt so drained that he must've just fallen asleep as soon as he managed to crawl away from their van… He didn't know how to explain any of that to Gaara, though. Instead, another question weighed in his mind. "Those men…" he continued. "…What were they going to do to me? What happens to the people they capture?"

Gaara stayed silent for a moment, looking down at the ground sadly, his mind still clouded with the thoughts of someone he'd already lost. "…They kill them." he answered. "Anyone captured by OA is killed."

"K-killed?!" Kaito stiffened, face plastered with shock and horror. Gaara started to walk away again. "W-wait!" Kaito called after him.

Gaara paused again, this time looking even more annoyed as he glanced back in Kaito's direction.

"Shouldn't we, I don't know… stick together?" he suggested, not wanting to be left alone with these 'OA' types. "You know, strength in numbers and all that?"

"Trust me; you wouldn't want to go where I'm headed." he told Kaito, expression completely serious. "Just find some shelter for yourself and don't fall asleep again. You'll be fine." he told the vocaloid before returning on his mission. _He defended himself from OA once before. _he told himself. _He has nothing to worry about. _

"B-but wait!" Kaito called, reaching his arm out after him. "I don't even know how I got away from them last time! I-" he stopped, frozen in fear as he felt something grab his arm. The black shapes started to emerge from between the trees as Kaito looked fearfully back at the man that held him.

Gaara sighed once more.

"Stay close to me!" the sand ninja called out as he rushed to Kaito's side, his sand pushing the one OA member away from the vocaloid as it formed a protective barrier around the duo, creating a ring shape that held the confused hunters at bay. "I'll take care of these for you." he told Kaito, but neither Gaara nor the OA troops had any time to act before yet another voice rang out through the forest.

"YAHOOOO!"

A smoke bomb was dropped, shrouding everyone's vision as Gaara's sand drew itself in closer to the ninja and Kaito, going completely on the defensive as the sand ninja could no longer see any of the troops. He could however, sense the chakra of one particular ninja lending a helping hand. As Kaito clung to Gaara for safety, the two of them heard the enthusiastic grunts of a fighter taking out all the troops.

When the smoke cleared, every OA member was on the ground, and both Gaara and the newcomer looked back at a familiar face. "Gaara?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"Kiba." Gaara replied monotonously, his sand retreating back into his gourd. Then, sounding more alert, "Wait." he spoke up. "I sense more chakra signatures."

Kiba seemed to notice them, too, but sounded a bit more fearful as he recognized them. "Yeah, wait — aren't they…?!"

"Oh." Gaara quickly spoke up, recognizing the signatures, as well. "No, they're nothing to worry about." he quickly assured Kiba. "Strangely enough, they're on our side."

"KIBA?!" a high-pitched fangirl voice rang through the forest, causing birds to fly from their perches. "Omigosh Kiba's here!" she squealed. Gaara, Kiba and Kaito looked up to see Itachi and Sasuke traveling nimbly across the tree branches, each carrying one fangirl on their back. "But wait!" Grace called out from behind Sasuke's head. "If Kiba's here, where's Akamaru?" she asked, sounding concerned.

"Well, I don't know." Kiba replied sadly. "I remember just sort of… popping up here, after I saw that weird flash of purple light. And when the light was gone, he wasn't with me!" he explained quickly. "But, besides that, I have another question!" he continued a bit frantically, eyes landing on Itachi and Sasuke perched casually beside each other. "What are _those two-_"

"It's complicated." Gaara cut him off. "You'll just have to trust me when I say that they're both on our side."

"Yeah, they kind of have a sort of brotherly truce at the moment." Alyssa entered the conversation as Gray approached the group on foot, the fangirl's arms hanging over his shoulders. Itachi and Sasuke sort of glared in her direction at the term 'brotherly truce'.

"Yeah, and- wait why am I carrying you?" Gray asked.

"I dunno." Alyssa shrugged. "I mean, Taylor and Grace both got rides, so…"

"Also Gray weren't you wearing a shirt when you left?" Grace asked.

"Yeah I don't even know how he even managed to take the thing off with me riding him." Alyssa chimed in.

"ANYWAY!" Taylor spoke up as Itachi and Sasuke descended onto the ground, letting the girls off. "Yes, Kiba, they're getting along for now…" she explained, trying to hold in her fangirl squeals and act like somewhat of a leader figure as she saw Kiba Inuzuka standing in front of her. "Because, you see, right now, you're in another world, a different dimension I guess," she started to explain. "And in _this _world…" she continued, giving Kiba the usual introduction spiel.

Meanwhile, a pair of twins and their newfound floating kitten finally made their way to the front of the group, shocked at what they'd found. "Kaito?! Is that you?!" Len exclaimed, finally taking notice of the vocaloid who'd been hiding for so long.

"Rin?! Len?!" he exclaimed back, then freezing up at the sight of the purple feline. "And, what is…?"

"That's not important right now!" Rin cut him off. "Oh Kaito, we were so worried!" she cried as the twins hugged him.

"Yeah, we were all worried about you guys, too, back home…" he trailed off, still a bit in shock as he hugged them back. "And, if you two are here," he spoke up. "Then, where's Miku?"

The entire group fell silent. Rin and Len especially looked towards the ground sadly, not wanting to say anything. Kaito looked around the group but it seemed no one wanted to make eye contact with him. Soon, though, he started to figure it out for himself. "Wait…" he spoke up, gaze trailing towards the OA bodies that littered the ground. "Those… those men. The, the ones in black…" he stammered, barely able to speak as he pointed towards them nervously. "Did… did they…?"

"Yes." Taylor answered sadly. "We're very sorry, but, OA has already taken… so many…" she trailed off, starting to feel a bit dizzy again as she started to think of the death toll.

"Wait! Hold on a minute!" Kiba spoke up, clearly concerned. "How do I know that no one I know is… you know?!" he asked somewhat frantically. "Gaara, do you-" he started to ask, but he cut himself off as he started to look between the group, a bit confused. "Wait…" he started to speak.

Not noticing his confusion, Taylor continued. "Yeah, actually, we… we found a list of…" she paused and took a deep breath. "A list of the dead…" she told Kiba. "I… I think I still have that list in my pocket or something, actually…" she stopped to look for it, pants still damp from hastily putting her clothes on over her still-drying suit.

"Wait, hold on a minute," Alyssa spoke up, now looking around in confusion as well. "Something's off… Grace, did you notice…?"

"Huh?" she pulled her head up, then quickly noticed what was wrong. "Wait, did he really-" she started to speak as she quickly looked around the group members, then cut herself off as she knew what had happened. "Oh you are _kidding _me!" she yelled in frustration.

"What? What's going on?" Taylor spoke up, still trying to un-crumple the list.

"Urgh! That stupid sand ninja's gone missing again!"

* * *

><p>AN - I'd like to wish a very merry Christmas to Naruto4Evah, who inspired me to write this update. More than a year ago, I said I would retire this fanfic. Why? Because writing it had become a chore, and no one was reading it, anyways. I said I might continue writing if people said they wanted me to, and while some people _did _not long after that announcement, it was Naruto's (or should I call you Evah? It reminds me of Wall-E so I might just call you Evah) review that really made me want to keep writing again.

Not only is this story _so much fun_, even when it's completely ridiculous and doesn't make any sense, but the roleplay that it's based on helped get _me _into so many different animes that I never would've discovered without it. And over the years, I had forgotten that the whole reason I started writing this was so that I could give _other _new otakus that same experience. So when Naruro4Evah told me that I'd done just that, well, I just couldn't let this story rot away.

And in re-reading recent chapters, I remembered how much I love this story, and I realized that it only became a chore because I let it. And after a year of not thinking about it, I've had a lot of fun writing this newest chapter, AND THE START OF SOME OTHER ONES *wink wink*. So yeah, I can't guarantee that I'll write continuously from now on, or that my updates will be anywhere near "regular"... but I'll probably come back to this any time I feel like writing for it, especially so long as there are people still reading and so heavily enjoying it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!


	21. The Basement

Alone, Gaara made his way through the trees, until he finally saw the Operation Anime headquarters coming into view. He wasn't concerned about the girls trying to follow him this time. Instead of simply leaving in silence, he told Itachi to make sure everyone knew that he wanted to be left alone for a while. For some reason, he trusted the Uchiha to pass the message on once they eventually noticed that he'd left again. Hopefully that would buy him enough time to do what he needed to do without the girls worrying.

Gaara approached the back entrance to the OA base, the same one that they'd used during their last raid. He couldn't help but wonder if the group had hung onto that key they'd snagged last time, not that the ninja needed it. Quickly glancing around to make sure he wasn't being watched, he trickled some sand into the lock, opening the door for him.

Slipping inside, he made sure to keep a sharp lookout for OA members. It didn't take long, though, before he encountered one as he turned a corner — the two of them spotting each other at the same time.

"Hey, what are you- uagh!" The OA member tried to speak, before Gaara's sand quickly poured out and surrounded the man, preventing him from attacking. "Wh-what do you want?!" the OA grunt trembled, though Gaara tightened his grip when the man tried to struggle.

"I don't want to cause much trouble." Gaara spoke monotonously. "I just want you to tell me one thing."

"Argh… what is it?!"

Gaara narrowed his eyes, taking a deep breath before posing his question. "What do you do with the bodies?"

The grunt looked back at him, confused. "Huh…? Why do you need to- augh!"

Gaara tightened his sand. His eyes only narrowed further as his patience thinned. "Just tell me." he pressed on. "What happens to them?"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, the otaku group at Taylor's remained mostly silent as all their usual chatter remained suppressed by a mix of negative emotions. Kaito sat on the couch with his legs folded up in front of him as he grieved silently, Rin sitting beside him with nothing she could think of to say. Alyssa, likewise, sat across from them, glancing around the room awkwardly as she couldn't think of anything to say, either. Taylor had already explained everything she could to Kiba, who seemed to be having some trouble absorbing it all as he, too, sat in awkward silence, not knowing what to say to those who had been hit worse as even he could barely understand it all. The Uchihas were probably off sulking somewhere. Taylor wanted to get more information from them about Gaara, but, they didn't say anything other than 'he said he wanted to be left alone', and they didn't seem to know anything more than that, nor did they want to be pestered.<p>

The otaku who seemed to be in the worst shape, though, was Grace, curled up in a chair with a worried expression plastered over her face. Taylor couldn't help but notice.

"Listen, Grace. I'm sure Gaara will be fine." she tried assuring her. "He's strong, remember?"

"Yeah, but…" Grace sniffled, seemingly on the verge of tears. "Why does he keep running away? What's he trying to do? And what if OA's involved?!"

"Maybe it has something to do with… his brother?" Kiba suggested.

"Yeah, Grace." Taylor chimed in. "Maybe he just wants to… think about things."

All Grace could do was whimper sadly and pull herself into an even tighter ball, her worries still not leaving her.

* * *

><p>Gaara stood in a dark hallway, in front of a menacing black door. It seemed that it didn't get much use. Of course, not that it would <em>need <em>much use. No one needed to _walk_ where he was headed. The only people sent to this place had _other _means of getting there, so he'd been told.

He clutched the handle, and the door creaked open. Almost instantly, Gaara threw his arm in front of his nose. An unbearable stench emanated from within. He had anticipated it, knowing what was beyond, but somehow he didn't expect it to be _so strong_.

Not wanting the escaping scent to attract attention, he quickly made his way inside, closing the door behind him and sealing himself into darkness. With his free hand, he felt along the walls for a light switch. Finding one, he watched as dim lights slowly flickered on, illuminating the concrete staircase in front of him, only leading down. He steeled himself before moving forward.

The stench, of course, only grew worse as the ninja continued to descend, soon growing so thick that the air around him just felt like it had a certain _dirtiness _to it, as if the foulness in the air could be perceived through more than just its smell. Nearing the bottom of the staircase, he saw a darkness at the end of the tunnel. The string of lights ended there. As Gaara reached the reached the basement floor, he turned and grimaced at the dark mass poured out in front of him. While no lights properly illuminated the OA basement, it was still far from complete darkness, and while it sickened him to even imagine it, he knew full well what he was looking at.

Corpses. Dozens, even hundreds of corpses, all thrown onto the cold basement floor to rot like garbage- no. Not even garbage. Even _garbage _would receive better care, being packed up and taken someplace. These characters had been treated even _worse _than garbage. Buried only in technicality, being below-ground, they were left with nothing but the clothes they'd been murdered in to cover their exposed, rotting flesh. The few streaks of light coming in from the stairway landed on just a few mangled faces — cold, stiff, and still frozen in expressions of agony and fear. With the poor lighting, Gaara couldn't make out many details further into the distance. And he was glad. At his feet, the ninja saw squirming mounds of ants crawling about, and he could only imagine what other sorts of insects had already begun to feast on the… _riper _bodies.

Sickened at how horribly mistreated the bodies were, he clenched his fists in anger. Still, just knowing what happened wasn't his goal. He still had work to do. Unfortunately, it wasn't manageable when he could barely make out any of the bodies. Reluctantly, he reached towards the light switch near the entrance to the room, and flicked it on.

* * *

><p>"Guys, has anyone seen the cat?" Len spoke up as he entered the living room, the concern clear on his face as he proceeded to look around couches and chairs.<p>

"She's probably with Sasuke." Alyssa spoke up. "She usually stays pretty close to him."

"Yeah. Hell if I know why." Sasuke growled as he entered the scene, the tiny kitten curled up on the ground next to his feet. "She keeps following me around but won't stop trembling like that." he told them apathetically.

"Wait what?!" Len exclaimed, rushing towards the creature. "What's wrong with her?!"

Sasuke shrugged. "Hn."

He started to walk off, leaving the cat just shaking there, making herself small. Her head perked up slightly when Sasuke started to leave, but she was soon distracted by Len's presence. "Are you ok?" he asked, reaching out to her. The cat only tucked her head in again, growling sadly as she curled up into an even tighter ball. "Guys, come over here!" Len called. "I think there's something wrong with the cat!"

* * *

><p>The lighting in the basement wasn't fantastic, with only a few, spread-out lights giving the place a very dark, dingy feel, only complimented by the sour sight of the rotting corpses as even the brightly-colored hair and outfits seemed so dirty and decolored. Regardless, Gaara braced himself and continued forward.<p>

He struggled to navigate through the pile of bodies, not wanting to step on anyone, though that was virtually impossible with so many mangled bodies in one tangled mess. He tensed up as he saw something moving in his peripheral vision, followed by a dull _thud. _But he quickly relaxed as he realized it was only another body hitting the floor, as none of the OA workers ever needed to enter this place themselves; they just dropped the bodies in from various chutes above. He grimaced at the thought.

It took him a while, but eventually, he managed to find what he was looking for. Slowly, he stopped at a particular corpse, and turned the character over so that he could see his face. He'd been pretty badly bruised, and his face paint was smudged — he must've put up a good fight — but in the end, he'd wound up down here like all the rest of them. Gaara looked sadly down at his brother, anger boiling inside him for the people who would not only so cruelly tear Kankuro's life away from him, but also leave him to rot in a horrid place like this.

Gently, Gaara bent down and cradled his brother in his arms, lifting him out of the mess of bodies beneath him. He wasn't entirely sure what to expect, coming here, but having seen all this, his mind had been made up for sure. _I need to give him a proper burial. _he told himself. _I don__'__t know what I__'__ll do exactly, but__… __anything is better than rotting in this awful, awful place. _Holding Kankuro protectively, he stood and turned towards the staircase. He had to get him out of there.

* * *

><p>AN - Happy 4th anniversary, Glomp! (Er, counting from the start date of the original roleplay, anyway.) (And even then I'm a day early but who cares.)


	22. Miku

"What is it, cat?" Len whimpered. The otaku group, sans Uchihas, had gathered around the tiny cat in concern. Not only was she curled up in pain, making a sad growling sound, but she also wasn't flying like she was before. Instead, she stayed glued to the ground, her free spirit tethered by the emotions holding her down. As the group crowded around her, she tried to inch even further back.

"Cat, please…" Len pleaded. "Tell us what's wrong…" He knew the cat wasn't an ordinary feline; she had special powers, presumably far more than their group knew of. She'd given them visions before. Even as a newborn just a few minutes old, she'd been able to show them Kaito. So maybe if she showed them another vision…

As the cat's body began to glow, it seemed Len's wish had been granted. The kitten focused her power, and, for just an instant, a clear image appeared in everyone's mind.

Kiba stiffened. "That was…"

"KANKURO!" Taylor and Grace screamed in unison.

"OMG the kitty showed us Kankuro!" Grace continued to ramble. "Gah what does that mean?!"

"Wait who? What?" Alyssa spoke up, her expression evident of confusion as she didn't recognize the face that had been placed in her mind. "Wait, that name though, isn't that…?"

"Gaara's brother!" Grace squeaked. "Augh what does this have to do with him?! Does it have something to do with why Gaara left…? Urgh I don't know anymore!" she rambled in frustration.

"Grace, calm down." Taylor told her. "We'll figure this out."

Then, Gray spoke up. "Um, hey, uh… Kaito, was it? You ok?"

The group turned towards the Vocaloid. He kept staring at the cat, seemingly frozen in shock or perhaps fear. "The cat… can give out visions…" he spoke slowly. "And it glows…"

"Oh, yeah! She has lots of powers! Sorry did we not tell you?" Grace spoke up. "But anyway yeah she even gave us a vision of you when we had to save you from OA!"

"Wait what?!" Kaito exclaimed. "And then… and then what did it do…?"

"Um… nothing much else, really." Grace replied. "She just sort of… gave us that vision and then we ran off and found you!"

Kaito shook his head, still looking rather freaked-out. "No, there… there was more…" he spoke up hesitantly, not sure how to tell them exactly what happened. "I think she… possessed me."

* * *

><p>"Hey! You there!" A voice called out. Gaara skid to a halt, a small team of OA members blocking his path. "The hell do you think you're doing with that corpse?!" one of them hollered as they all readied their guns. Gaara glanced over his shoulder quickly. He'd been followed from behind, too. Cornered. Sighing, Gaara looked down at Kankuro's body, still held protectively in his arms. He didn't want to fight while carrying him, but it looked like the ninja didn't have much of a choice. Sand began to pour out of his gourd as he pulled Kankuro in even closer to his chest, readying himself to fight back.<p>

* * *

><p>The group grew silent, and, skeptically, they all turned and looked at Kaito. "What…?" Taylor asked, raising an eyebrow.<p>

Kaito took a deep breath. "I was being attacked by those… OA guys, and then, I don't know, I think I started… glowing — in a purple color, just like that — and then… I think I was strong enough to… get away somehow?" he sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I know it's really weird and I don't remember it very well, but, it happened!"

"Oh we believe you." Gray chimed in, nodding. "We don't know much about the cat anyway, so…"

"Wait," Kaito spoke up. "Where did that cat even come from, anyway? Did it just… appear here, like us?"

"Well, sort of." Alyssa answered. "See, Rin and Len found it as an egg, and then it hatched,"

"And now we have a mysterious magic kitty who can do all kinds of things!" Grace chirped. "But she seems kind of sick right now, though…"

"R-right…" Kaito nodded, quickly getting lost in thought about the creature. It didn't seem to be any ordinary anime character — if it was a character at all, for that matter — and he had a feeling its powers were far greater than what the otaku group knew about it so far. Despite the cat being on their side, he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy about being in the presence of such a powerful creature.

* * *

><p>Panting, Gaara continued to distance himself from the OA building, fairly certain he'd shaken the last few OA troops off his trail. He couldn't fight as well as he normally could, but thankfully, he still managed to get away without any injuries. Still making his trek through the forest, he paused to look down at his brother in his arms. <em>What should I do now? <em>he wondered. _Maybe I should ask Taylor and the others. _he contemplated, before starting off in that direction.

Before he could walk very far, though, he found himself looking down at Kankuro once again. His brother's body almost felt… energized, somehow. Some sort of power was flowing into it. As he looked down in confusion and alarm, his brother almost felt… warm.

* * *

><p>"Aaaaah she's glowing brighter now!" Grace screamed as the cat's purple glow intensified, reaching almost blinding levels as the group instinctively inched away from her.<p>

"What's she doing?!" Kaito asked.

"I dunno!" Grace answered. "She's never done this before."

* * *

><p>Gaara's head pulled back in amazement, though he was unable to keep his eyes off his brother. Kankuro's body became enveloped in a warm purple glow, glowing brighter and brighter until, all at once… Kankuro vanished.<p>

* * *

><p>The cat collapsed, her glow diminishing all at once as she fell onto the floor. Len was the first to act.<p>

"Ah! Are you ok?!" he called out in concern as he crawled forward, reaching out and gently scooping her up in his arms. "What did you do?!" he cried.

Looking up at Len, the cat mewed softly, then curled up in a ball, and began to give off a dimmer, warmer glow as she focused her energy once more.

A vision then played in everyone's heads.

* * *

><p>Kankuro woke with a start in his own bed, sitting upright as he quickly looked himself over. His bruises were gone, his face paint washed off, and, most peculiarly, he was <em>alive. <em>He looked around, and saw that he was in his bedroom back home. _Was it all just__… __a dream? _ he wondered silently. Slowly, he stepped out of bed, continuing to look around for anything out of the ordinary as he wandered out into the hallway. A familiar voice then caught his attention.

"K-Kankuro?!" the voice cried out. Turning around, Kankuro saw Temari standing there behind him, staring, shocked. "Is it… really you…?" she could barely ask. She stood there for a second, before running towards him, wrapping her arms around her brother as she buried her face in his chest, nearly on the verge of tears.

"Temari? What's wrong?!" he asked, not expecting a hug from Temari, his memory still hazy.

"You… you disappeared!" Temari exclaimed, shocked that Kankuro acted like he didn't know. "You vanished without a trace a few days ago…" she started to explain. "And I'd just been… so worried, especially after Gaara…" she trailed off painfully, unable to finish the thought.

And that's when Kankuro started to remember. Only a day or so prior, Gaara disappeared. And then, Kankuro saw the purple light…

"I don't know what happened…" Temari continued. "But, at least you're safe now…"

* * *

><p>The vision faded. The group members stared blankly ahead as the world around them started to come back into view, blinking dumbfoundedly as they struggled to absorb what they just saw.<p>

"Was that…" Taylor broke the silence, still as astonished as the others. "Did that really just…" her gaze drifted towards the cat as she was lost for words. The tiny feline had already fallen asleep in Len's arms.

"So Kankuro is… _alive._" Kiba spoke slowly.

"The cat… can bring people… back to life." Kaito continued staring straight ahead.

And not a single group member had anything intelligent to say. Most were simply too amazed to speak.

Len's face remained frozen, seemingly deep in thought. Finally, he found something to say. "I've got it." he spoke up.

His words seemed to break the stillness somewhat as a few heads turned towards his. "Huh? Got what?" Rin asked.

"A name." Len answered. "I know what I'm going to name her."

A few more heads turned in curiosity, waiting for his answer.

"Miku." he told them.

"Miku?" Kaito echoed.

"Yes." Len nodded. "Miku here can help us find characters who are in trouble, she can help them fight back, and she can even… bring them back to life." he explained. "She's our hope. Just like she's hope that… we can see _our _Miku again someday." he finished, looking towards Rin and Kaito with a tear-filled smile.

"That's… that's lovely, Len." Rin replied, struggling to hold back tears herself.

"Y-yeah…" Gray nodded, rubbing his eyes.

And soon it became apparent that the bulk of the group found themselves smiling, laughing and tearing up at least a little, as everyone was still overwhelmed by the miracle they'd just witnessed.


End file.
